Charon

**Charon**, or **Charun**, is the God of Territories and Boundaries from Greco-Roman mythology and a son of the primordial goddess Nyx.

He is known for being the ferryman of the Greco-Roman Underworld, in charge of transporting waiting shades across the Acheron into the afterlife.

## Overview

In Greek mythology, **Charon**, also known as **Kharon**, is the ferryman of Hades who carries the souls of the newly dead to the Greek Underworld, also known as Hades. For a fee, he would bring the dead across the River Acheron, or River Styx. that separated the world of the living from the world of the dead. Those who could not pay the fee were forced to wander the shores of the river as Wraiths for eternity (or a hundred years depending on the retelling).

In various depictions, Charon is just an old man who ferries the living through the River Styx. In other depictions, he is shown as an undead, with grotesque traits, and is sometimes depicted as been attached to the boat by his torso, essentially ending in him been the boat himself.

## Appearance

Charon has the appearance of a huge and very muscular dark-skinned man, with light-colored hair shaved military style and his eyes are never shown as he hid them behind a white blindfold branded with a red cross symbol. This, however, isn't his true appearance, but rather one he takes as to not frightens newly deceased shades.

His true form is that of a drowned corpse, with skin bloated and paled and half-rotten, giant maggots crawling beneath his skin, and his eyes are blazing pits of fire. He wears tattered cloak stained with dirt, blood, and the white ashes of the deceased.

## Personality

Charon presents himself as a clever, stylish, and witty man with a particular taste in expensive Italian suits. He is charismatic and theatrical, if not a bit on the campy side at times, and is by Percy to be a "musical nerd of undead proportions". He has a habit of making dirty jokes that "can make a nun blushes to death."

However, according to Hermes, he is actually extremely deceitful and cunning, and utterly self-serving, usually operating only to benefit himself. Prior to Hades' ascension to the Lord of the Underworld, he would deal out cut-throat price for shades who want to cross into the underworld, making it so that only shades who were buried with servants and sacrifices were allowed passage into the afterlife, while the less fortunate shades were stuck on the other side.

While he doesn't show it often, he possesses a cruel, merciless, and sadistic side to him when it comes to warfare. In fact, while his Ancient Greek and Roman depictions didn't show it, his Etruscan depictions as Charu was a demon-like figure who relished in natural disasters and bloodshed, with one of the remaining relics depicting him is that of him slaughtering Trojan prisoners alongside Achle.

He hates outsiders and living people trying to enter Hades, though above all, he despises those who dare to interfere with his work and would actively hunt them down. He also dislikes the current generation of humans, as their destroyed hopes and dreams have caused a serious pollution to the underworldly rivers, especially in the Acheron where he works at.

As one of the oldest creations of Nyx, he would come to the aid of any of his siblings who called for his help. He does have a soft spot for young children, as he has personally paid for the passage fees of many young children who didn't have any family to prepare their funerals for them.

## History

### Early Life

Charon was among the first minor gods created by Nyx after Aether and Hemera's birth rendered her barren. Soon after his birth, he moved away from the Mansion of Night to the upper layers of the Ancient Greek Underworld and began to transport shades across the Acheron to the afterlife for a price.

Centuries later, his own cult in Anatolia began to form as venerating him was among the only way for less wealthy people to ensure entrance into the underworld back then. Otherwise, only the wealthiest, the kings and sons of kings, were able to enter the afterlife after bribing him with a portion of their riches.

### The Titanomachy

During the Titanomachy, while he did agreed to join the side of Hades and the Olympian gods, Charon wasn't the greatest fan of Hades' new rules and orders, which forced him to treat all of the shades without discrimination of their wealth and background, as well as forcing the payment for his passage to be an obolus or a danake for all passengers.

According to Alecto, because of this new rule, he became buried in work for nearly a thousand years afterward, as millions of shades stopped at the banks due to his overpriced fee had finally be able to pass into the afterlife, which caused him to overwork himself into exhaustion in an almost daily basis.

At some point in time, he became so stressed by his work that he began to slaughter daemon in his free time to relax, which many chthonic gods considered to be a much safer alternative to practicing capitalism.

### Trojan War

While he was never named in the Iliad, according to Hermes, he was among the gods who danced during the slaughter of Trojan soldiers and civilians during the Fall of Troy. He, in particular, was also responsible for goading Achilles into ignoring all the risks and attacking the Trojans head on, slaughtering one Trojan prisoner after another and dumping it into the Scamander River, which resulted in him earning the ire of its potamos Xanthus.

### The Aeneid

When Troy was being destroyed by the Achaeans, Aeneas fled the city to seek a new homeland in the western Mediterranean. Guided by the seer Helenus, he arrived in Italy where he was guided by Deiphobe, the Sibyl of Cumae, in a journey into the underworld to see the shade of his deceased father Anchises. Before entering the underworld through a cave near Lake Avernus, Aeneas was sent a golden bough taken from the sacred grove of Proserpina by his mother Venus.

Upon entering the cave, the two met Charon who intended to chase them out of the underworld before Deiphobe showed him the golden bough, and thus, telling him that they arrived under the commands of the gods. Because of this, he begrudgingly allowed them to pass through. Not much is known about the bough's whereabouts after this, though it's believed that Charon had traded it for money to gamble.

## Equipment

**Warhammer** (ウォーハンマー, *U~ōhanmā*): Charon possesses a giant oar-shaped warhammer made from Stygian Iron and appears as a "warhammer-shaped void" in the broad daylight. On one side of the hammer, it looks like the face of a man screaming in pure agony, while on the other had the crest of the House of Hades. In ancient times, he would use it to defeat and kill stray daemon, and thus, protect the shades from demonic threats.

## Trivia

* His name, Charon, is a poetic form of *charopós*, which means "of keen gaze", referring either to fierce, flashing, or feverish eyes, or to eyes of a bluish-gray color.
	+ His name may have been a euphemism for death.
	+ Because of this, it can be assumed that his human eye color is bluish-gray.
* Despite popular belief, he is the ferryman of the Acheron, not the Styx.
* His attributes include silver obols, oars, hammers, and serpents.
* Charon, the largest moon of the dwarf planet Pluto, is named after him.
* The hadrosaurid *Charonosaurus* is named after him.
* In Ancient Greek religion, the coin placed in the mouth of the dead is called Charon's obol.
* In Etruscan arts, he appeared as a gorgon-like monster with large tusks, discolored skin, black beard, enormous wings, and snakes wrapped around his arms.
* While in Greco-Roman traditions, his only duty is that of the ferryman who transport the shades of the deceased into the afterlife, in Etruscan mythology, he was a psychopomp who protected the shades of the dead on their journey to the underworld.
* Diodorus Siculus thought that the ferryman and his name had been imported from Egypt.
* Haros or Charos is the modern Greek equivalent of Charon. It is used in common phrases such as "from the teeth of Haros" meaning to come close to death or "you will be eaten (i.e. taken) by Haros".