THE WATERS OF FORGETFULNESS
Yorick Blumenfeld

Who can remember what it was like to visit hell? For the poet Virgil, who made the descent when he was writing his Aeneid, it was unforgettable. For Rufus, the Roman narrator of this memoir, the Underworld was his way of life. In his dirty tunic and straggly false beard, he doubled as the fabled boatman, Charon.
 
His truly was an unparalleled life: a respected citizen and father above ground and a surly mythical boatman of the river Styx below. This double identity was to end when Rufus faced possible execution for murder.  As he tells us his story, fully describing the greatest scam of classical antiquity, Charon’s narrative is simultaneously irreverent, lustful, philosophic and spiritual. Above all, it is entertaining and full of suspense.
 
This Augustan age memoir takes an intimate and uncritical look at the mores and morals of the period, from the practice of orgies to the mystery cult of the Orphics. Charon’s almost visual descriptions of the Roman Hell are haunting, and the cast of characters, topped by Virgil and the prophetic, truly revered, Sibyl of Cumae, is enticing. As the end of an oracular era, stretching back some 700 years, approaches the narrative’s climax will enthral.