Atticred-figurelekythos attributed to the Tymbos painter showing Charon welcoming a soul into his boat, c. 500–450 BC
InGreek mythology,Charon orKharon (/ˈkɛərɒn,-ən/ⓘKAIR-on, -ən;Ancient Greek:ΧάρωνAncient Greek pronunciation:[kʰá.rɔːn]) is apsychopompGod, the ferryman of theGreek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been givenfuneral rites across the riversAcheron andStyx, which separate the worlds of the living and the dead.[1] Archaeology confirms that, in some burials, low-value coins known generically asCharon's obols were placed in, on, or near the mouth of the deceased, or next to the cremation urn containing the ashes. This has been taken to confirm that at least some aspects of Charon'smytheme are reflected in some Greek and Roman funeral practices, or else the coins function as aviaticum for the soul's journey.[1][2] InVirgil's epic poem,Aeneid, the dead who could not pay the fee, and those who had received no funeral rites, had to wander the near shores of the Styx for one hundred years before they were allowed to cross the river.[3] Charon also ferried the living mortalsHeracles andAeneas to the underworld and back again.
The name Charon is unexplained except via folk etymology which takes it as aproper noun fromχάρων (charon), a poetic form ofχαρωπός (charopós) 'of keen gaze', referring either to fierce, flashing, or feverish eyes, or to eyes of a bluish-grey color. The word may be a euphemism for death.[4] Flashing eyes may indicate the anger or irascibility of Charon as he is often characterized in literature, but the etymology is not certain. The ancient historianDiodorus Siculus thought that the ferryman and his name had been imported fromEgypt.[5] Charon is first attested in the now fragmentary Greek epic poemMinyas, which includes a description of a descent to the underworld and possibly dates back to the 6th century BC.[6]
Charon is depicted in theart of ancient Greece.Attic funeraryvases of the 5th and 4th centuries BC are often decorated with scenes of the dead boarding Charon's boat. On the earlier such vases, he looks like a rough, unkempt Athenian seaman dressed in reddish-brown, holding his ferryman's pole in his right hand and using his left hand to receive the deceased.Hermes sometimes stands by in his role aspsychopomp. On later vases, Charon is given a more "kindly and refined" demeanor.[12]
There Charon 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.[13]
Other Latin authors also describe Charon, among themSeneca in his tragedyHercules Furens, where Charon is described in verses 762–777 as an old man clad in foul garb, with haggard cheeks and an unkempt beard, a fierce ferryman who guides his craft with a long pole. When the boatman tells Heracles to halt, the Greek hero uses his strength to gain passage, overpowering Charon with the boatman's own pole.[14]
In the second century,Lucian employed Charon as a figure in hisDialogues of the Dead, most notably in Parts 4 and 10 ("Hermes and Charon" and "Charon and Hermes").[15]
In theDivine Comedy, Charon forces reluctant sinners onto his boat by beating them with his oar. (Gustave Doré, 1857).
In the 14th century,Dante Alighieri described Charon in hisDivine Comedy, drawing from Virgil's depiction inAeneid 6. Charon is the first named mythological character Dante meets in the underworld, in Canto III of theInferno. Dante depicts him as having eyes of fire. Elsewhere, Charon appears as a mean-spirited and gaunt old man or as a winged demon wielding a double hammer, although Michelangelo's interpretation, influenced by Dante's depiction in theInferno, shows him with an oar over his shoulder, ready to beat those who delay ("batte col remo qualunque s'adagia",Inferno 3, verse 111).[16] In modern times, he is commonly depicted as a living skeleton in acowl, much like theGrim Reaper. The French artistGustave Dore depicted Charon in two of his illustrations for Dante'sDivine Comedy. The Flemish painterJoachim Patinir depicted Charon in hisCrossing the River Styx. And the Spanish painterJose Benlliure y Gil portrayed Charon in hisLa Barca de Caronte.
Though named after Charon, the Etruscan death-demonCharun has a different origin and functions, being an assistant to Death as well as psychopomp and guardian, delivering the newly dead to the underworld by horseback or chariot. He is winged, with pointed ears and a hideous and threatening appearance, and has a vulture's beak. He is armed with a very large hammer, with which to "mercilessly pummel" the dead.[17][18]
Most accounts, includingPausanias (10.28) and laterDante'sInferno (3.78), associate Charon with the swamps of the riverAcheron. Ancient Greek literary sources such asPindar,Aeschylus,Euripides,Plato, andCallimachus also place Charon on the Acheron. Roman poets, includingPropertius,Ovid, andStatius, name the river as theStyx, perhaps following the geography of Virgil's underworld in theAeneid, where Charon is associated with both rivers.[19]
^Coins were not placed on the eyes; all literary sources specify the mouth.Callimachus,Hecale fragment 278 in R. Pfeiffer's textCallimachus (Oxford UP, 1949), vol.2, p. 262; now ordered as fragment 99 by A.S.D. Hollis, in his edition,Callimachus: Hecale (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1990), pp. 284f., from theSuidas, English translationonline, specifying the mouth, alsoEtymologicum Graecum ("Danakes"). See also Smith'sDictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, entry on "Charon"online for placement in the mouth, though archaeology disproves Smith's statement that every corpse was given acoin; see article onCharon's obol.
^Liddell and Scott,A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1843, 1985 printing), entries on χαροπός and χάρων, pp. 1980–1981;Brill's New Pauly (Leiden and Boston 2003), vol. 3, entry on "Charon", pp. 202–203.
^Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood,"Reading" Greek Death (Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 359online and p. 390online.
^Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, Charon (1),Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1995, Published online: 7 March 2016[1] (accessed 28 September 2020)
^Hansen, William F. (2004).Handbook of classical mythology. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. pp. 136–137.ISBN9781576072264.
^Hard, Robin; Rose, Herbert J. (2008).The Routledge handbook of Greek mythology: based on H.J. Rose's Handbook of Greek mythology (1. publ. in paperback ed.). London: Routledge. p. 113.ISBN9780415186360.
^Boccaccio, Giovanni; Solomon, Jon (2011).Genealogy of the Pagan Gods. Volume 1: Books I-V. Cambridge, Mass. London, England: Harvard University Press. pp. 166–167.ISBN9780674057104.
^Boccaccio, Giovanni; Papio, Michael (2009).Boccaccio's expositions on Dante's Comedy. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press. p. 630.ISBN9780802099754.
^SeeRonnie H. Terpening,Charon and the Crossing: Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Transformations of a Myth (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1985 and London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1985), pp. 97–98.
^For an analysis of these dialogues, see Terpening, pp. 107–116.
^For an analysis of Dante's depiction of Charon and other appearances in literature from antiquity through the 17th century in Italy, seeTerpening,Charon and the Crossing.
^Abel, Ernest (2009).Death Gods: an Encyclopedia of the Rulers, Evil Spirits, and Geographies of the Dead. ABC-CLIO, LLC. pp. 41, 61, 125, 139.ISBN9780313357138.
^DeGrummond, Nancy & Simon, Erika,The Religion of the Etruscans, University of Texas Press, 2006, p. 57.
^Godefroit, Pascal; Shuqin Zan; Liyong Jin (2000). "Charonosaurus jiayinensis n. g., n. sp., a lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Late Maastrichtian of northeastern China".Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Série IIA. 330: 875–882. Bibcode:2000CRASE.330..875G. doi:10.1016/S1251-8050(00)00214-7.
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