I'd like to see the actual paper before casting judgement...

Seems a bit tenuous, and I'm sceptical, but then these 'forensic history' cases are tricky, and ultimately can not be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, in my opinion. Even so, I find them fascinating.

Alexander the Great killed by toxic bacteria?: May have been the poison that caused conqueror's death more than 2,000 years ago

According to the study, calicheamicin, a secondary metabolite of Micromonospora echinospora, is what gave the river its toxic reputation.

The Styx was the portal to the underworld, according to myth. Here the gods swore sacred oaths.

"If they lied, Zeus forced them to drink the water, which struck them down. The 8th-century B.C. Greek poet Hesiod wrote that the gods were unable to move, breathe or speak for one year," co-author Adrienne Mayor, a research scholar at Stanford University's Departments of Classics and History of Science, told Discovery News.

Another account by the Greek geographer Pausanias (110 to 180) reported that the river could ruin crystal, pottery and bronze. "(The) only thing able to resist corrosion is the hoof of a mule or horse," he wrote.