Charon (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, Charon (Greek Χάρων, fierce brightness)[citation needed] was the ferryman of Hades. (Etruscan equivalent: Charun) (Modern Greek Folklore angel of death: Charos or Charontas) He took the newly dead from one side of the river Acheron to the other if they had an obolus (coin) to pay for the ride. Corpses in ancient Greece were always buried with a coin underneath their tongue to pay Charon. Those who could not pay had to wander the banks of the Acheron for one hundred years. No soul is ever ferried the other way, the sole exceptions being Persephone, Orpheus, and Psyche.
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 the son of Erebus and Nyx.
He was depicted as a cranky, skinny old man. Aristophanes, in The Frogs, had him spewing insults regarding people's girth.
It is often said that he ferried souls across the river Styx. This is suggested by Virgil in his Aeneid (book 6, line 369). However, by most accounts, including Pausanias (x.28) and, later, Dante's Inferno (book 3, line 78), the river was Acheron.
Some authors claim the price to be 2 coins, placed over each eye of the deceased.
Dante Alighieri incorporated Charon into 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 hell, in the third Canto of Inferno.
