{"id":142,"date":"2025-12-14T12:42:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T17:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/?p=142"},"modified":"2025-12-22T06:53:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T11:53:36","slug":"%c2%a7-0-6-aornos-averno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/2025\/12\/14\/%c2%a7-0-6-aornos-averno\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a7 0.6. Aornos\/Avernus"},"content":{"rendered":"

In The Aeneid Virgil<\/em> makes one of the most famous descriptions of the threshold of the infernal abodes. Following the advice of the Cumaean Sybil Aeneas must take a shoot from a tree with golden boughs that grows in a clearing near the entrance of the underworld. Once he procures a mistletoe branch\u2014a plant whose pale green leaves acquire a golden hue during the winter\u2014and has offered the due sacrifices to the deities of the underworld, Aeneas heads to the threshold of Hades:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Straightway they find a cave profound, of entrance gaping wide, o\u2019erhung with rock, in gloom of sheltering grove, near the dark waters of a lake, whereby no bird might ever pass with scathless wing, so dire an exhalation is breathed out from that dark deep of death to upper air :\u2014 hence, in the Grecian tongue, Aornos<\/em> called.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Aorno<\/em>, \u201cwithout birds,\u201d is the origin of the name Avernus. In the Phaedrus<\/em> Plato argues that when the soul is perfect it is winged and adds that \u201cthe wing is the corporeal element which is most akin to the divine, and which by nature tends to soar aloft and carry that which gravitates downwards into the upper region, which is the habitation of the gods.\u201d2<\/a><\/sup> A place in which birds are banned, where their wings are useless, is a place where the potency of heaven and the powers of the upper world are lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of her best-known poems, Emily Dickinson says: \u201cHope is the thing with feathers\/That perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.\u201d It was with reason that Dante put at the entrance of hell a brief legend that ends thus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before me there were no created things, Only eterne, and I eternal last.\n\u201cAll hope abandon, ye who enter in!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n
  1. Virgilio, Aeneid<\/em>. VI 237-242. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. Plato, Phaedrus<\/em>, 293. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    En La Eneida Virgilio hace una de las m\u00e1s famosas descripciones del umbral de las moradas infernales. Por consejo de la Sibila de Cumas Eneas debe tomar un reto\u00f1o de un \u00e1rbol de ramas doradas que crece en un claro cercano a la entrada del inframundo. Una vez se ha hecho a la rama del […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274836558,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"[{\"id\":\"e91b8604-e90e-4ada-8595-c941658bb2af\",\"content\":\"Virgilio, Eneida<\\\/em>. VI 237-242.\"},{\"id\":\"5af4804a-0a2f-4024-bff5-1bc7e2d349c4\",\"content\":\"Plat\\u00f3n, Fedro<\\\/em>, 293.\"}]","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[432627],"tags":[786108950,1749365,786108947,54183,202510,418881,672871,786108948,160800,786108949,786108938,291509],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-preambulo","tag-aeneid","tag-averno","tag-avernus","tag-emily-dickinson","tag-eneida","tag-fedro","tag-pajaros","tag-phaedrus","tag-platon","tag-plato","tag-virgil","tag-virgilio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYHfz-2i","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274836558"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}