The ancient historian Diodorus Siculus thought that the ferryman and his name had been imported from Egypt. Flashing eyes may indicate the anger or irascibility of Charon as he is often characterized in literature, but the etymology is not certain. The name Charon is most often explained as a proper noun from χάρων ( charon), a poetic form of χαρωπός ( charopós) 'of keen gaze', referring either to fierce, flashing, or feverish eyes, or to eyes of a bluish-gray color. Hercules and Orpheus were some known examples of beings descending to the underworld, and returning, with Charon's permission. To pay for his entry to Hades as a living mortal, Virgil's Aeneas gives Charon the Golden Bough.
Epic grim reaper art full#
This journey is known as catabasis, and those who undergo it may acquire partial or full immortality, either through persuasion or payment of another, more exceptional fee. Some mortals, heroes, and demigods were said to have descended to the underworld and returned from it as living beings. In Virgil'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. This has been taken to confirm that at least some aspects of Charon's mytheme are reflected in some Greek and Roman funeral practices, or else the coins function as a viaticum for the soul's journey. Archaeology confirms that, in some burials, low-value coins were placed in, on, or near the mouth of the deceased, or next to the cremation urn containing their ashes. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the worlds of the living and the dead. In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon ( / ˈ k ɛər ɒ n, - ən/ KAIR-on, -ən Ancient Greek: Χάρων) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of Hades, the Greek underworld.
Not to be confused with the centaur Chiron.Īttic red-figure lekythos attributed to the Tymbos painter showing Charon welcoming a soul into his boat, c.
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