Avernus Definition & Meaning

Origin of Avernus

Latin Avernus, from Ancient Greek αορνος (aornos), αϝορνος (awornos, “birdless”), from ἀ- (a-, “without”) + ὄρνις (ornis, “bird”). The lack of birds was likely due to fatal gases like carbon dioxide seeping from the volcanically active lake.

From Wiktionary

The lakes Averno (Avernus), Lucrino (Lucrinus), Fusaro (Palus Acherusia), and Agnano are within this group, which has shown activity in historical times.
The lake of Avernus, as an entrance to the infernal regions, was sacred to her.
Nero's scheme for the construction of a canal from Lake Avernus to Ostia would have restored the balance in its favour (though it certainly could not have been continuous all the way to Rome with the means of engineering then available).
As early as the 7th century, and probably before, the Romans practised a kind of oyster culture in Lake Avernus, which still survives to the present day in Lake Fusaro.
Farther west, on the coast, and provided with a convenient harbour, stands Pozzuoli (Puteoli), a city containing many Roman remains, but now chiefly remarkable for the large gunworks erected by Messrs Armstrong & Co.; and beyond it, round the Bay of Baiae, are Monte Nuovo, a hill thrown up in a single night in September 1538; the classic site of Baiae; the Lucrine Lake; Lake Avernus; the Lake of Fusaro (Acherusia Palus); the Elysian t Fields; and the port and promontory of Misenum.

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