cross the Styx

English

Etymology

From Greek mythology, after Styx, a river that forms the boundary between Earth and the Underworld, over which the ferryman Charon transports the souls of the newly dead. See Styx on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

cross the Styx (third-person singular simple present crosses the Styx, present participle crossing the Styx, simple past and past participle crossed the Styx)

1. (intransitive, literary or humorous) To die.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:die

   • 2009, Peter Wright, Triumphs and Tragedies: Twenty-five Aspects of the Life of a Liverpool Sailor, Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 172:

     The following day Nigel apologized for what he described as an unhappy domestic interlude. “Marietta tells me that you are going to come over every day until . . . I cross the Styx.” I heard him chuckle. “Jolly nice of you, old boy.”

   • 2020 March 28, Catherine Holmes, “Review: Mantel’s trilogy finale gives us the end of Cromwell’s action-packed life”, in The Post and Courier‎^[1]:

     We know what’s sprouting, but Mantel’s trilogy lets us imagine that it might all have been different. Did Anne Boleyn’s neck have to meet the sword of an executioner brought from Calais to do her in? Did Thomas Cromwell have to cross the Styx himself four years later?