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[755] ὅρκος here, as often, means the object sworn by, the ‘sanction’ of the oath. Cf. 15.38 “τὸ κατειβόμενον Στυγὸς ὕδωρ, ὅς τε μέγιστος”

“ὅρκος δεινότατός τε πέλει μακάρεσσι θεοῖσι”. For the origin of the oath by the Styx see Frazer Paus. iv. p. 253. The water was supposed to be fatal to life, so that the oath was originally ‘a sort of poison-ordeal; the water would kill the man who forswore himself, but spare the man who swore truly.’ In Herod. vi. 74 there is a case, the only one recorded in history, where the Arkadians are asked to swear by the Styx; so probably ‘when the poets made the gods swear by Styx, they were only transferring to heaven a practice which had long been customary on earth.’ For ἀπορρώξ cf. Od. 10.514 “Κώκυτός θ᾽, ὃς δὴ Στυγὸς ὕδατός ἐστιν ἀπορρώξ” , and see M. and R.'s note there on the rivers of the infernal regions.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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