Charon (god)
In Greek mythology, Charon ("fierce brightness") was the ferryman of Hades. (Etruscan equivalent: Charun) 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.The Cumaean Sibyl gave living people a golden bough necessary to cross the river while still alive.
Charon was the son of Erebus and Nyx.
He was depicted as a cranky, skinny old man or a winged demon with a double hammer.
It is often said that he ferried souls across the river Styx. This is untrue. By all accounts, the river was Acheron.
We, men of Athens, are not only in
drunk mandrake [Footnote: Used for a powerful opiate by the ancients. It
Nor all the drowsy sirups of the world,
Which thou ow'dst yesterday.]
or some other sleeping potion; and methinks--for I judge the truth must
that, among the states in imminent danger, some dispute with us for the
themselves separately rather than in union with us.
Why am I so particular in mentioning these things? I seek not to give
make it clear and manifest to you all, that habitual sloth and
immediately felt on every occasion of neglect, but shows itself in the
effrayant."] Look at Serrium and Doriscus; which were first disregarded
your careless abandonment of these lost Thrace and Cersobleptes your
demolished Porthmus, and raised a tyrant in Euboea like a fortress
You were insensible, indifferent to all his aggressions; gave.
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