Charon (mythology)

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Michelangelo's rendition of Charon in The Last Judgment.
Michelangelo's rendition of Charon in The Last Judgment.

In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon (in Greek, Χάρων — the bright[1]) was the ferryman of Hades. He was the son of Erebus and Nyx.

Charon took the newly dead across the river Acheron or Styx if they had an obolus to pay for the ride. Those who could not had to wander the banks of the Acheron for one hundred years. Corpses in some regions in ancient Greece were buried or burned with 2 silver coins, called an obolus, on their eyes to pay the fare.

In various myths, the heroes Heracles, Orpheus, Aeneas, Dionysus and Psyche all journeyed to and fro on the boat of Charon. According to Virgil's Aeneid (book 6), the Cumaean Sibyl directs Aeneas to the golden bough necessary to cross the river while still alive and return to the world. Orpheus also made the trip to the underworld and returned alive.

Charon was depicted as a cranky, skinny old man or as a winged demon wielding a double hammer, although Michaelangelo's interpretation, right, shows differently. Aristophanes, in The Frogs, had him spewing insults regarding people's girth. In modern times, he is commonly depicted as a living skeleton in a cowl, much like the Grim Reaper or Dickens' Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

Most accounts, including Pausanias (x.28) and, later, Dante's Inferno (book 3, line 78), associate Charon with the swamps of the river Acheron. Nevertheless, it is a popular notion that he ferried souls across the river Styx. This is suggested by Virgil in his Aeneid (book 6, line 369):

There Chairon stands, who rules the dreary coast -
A sordid god: down from his hairy chin
A length of beard descends, uncombed, unclean;
His eyes, like hollow furnaces on fire;
A girdle, foul with grease, binds his obscene attire.

Dante Alighieri also described Charon in his Divine Comedy. He is the same as his Greek counterpart, being paid an obolus to cross Acheron. He is the first named character Dante meets in the underworld, in the third Canto of Inferno.


[edit] See also

Greek underworld
Residents
Geography
Famous Inmates
  • Charun - an Etruscan counterpart to Charon
  • Psychopomp - the general word for a guide of the dead

[edit] References

  1. ^ Liddell-Scott, Greek-English Lexicon s.v. charôn and charopos
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