Charon

**Charon** is the God of Boundaries from Greco-Roman mythology. He is the ferryman of the Greco-Roman Underworld, being tasked with transporting shades across the Acheron river.

## Overview

In Greek mythology, **Charon** or **Kharon** is a psychopomp, the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased who had received the rites of burial, across the river Acheron (or in later accounts, across the river Styx) that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead.

A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person. Some authors say that those who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were left unburied, had to wander the shores for one hundred years, until they were allowed to cross the river.

In the catabasis mytheme, heroes – such as Aeneas, Dionysus, Heracles, Hermes, Odysseus, Orpheus, Pirithous, Psyche, Theseus and Sisyphus – journey to the underworld and return, still alive, conveyed by the boat of Charon.

## Appearance

Charon has the appearance of a huge and very muscular man, with light-colored hair shaved military style and bluish-gray eyes covered beneath 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, 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.

## Personality

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

However, in reality, he is actually deceitful, cunning, and utterly self-serving, usually operating only to benefit himself. Prior to Hades' ascension as Lord of the Underworld, he would deal out cut-throat prices for shades who want to cross into the afterlife, while the less fortunate shades were stuck on the other side for centuries or until he felt particularly merciful.

While he doesn't show it often, he possesses a merciless and sadistic side to him when it comes to battle and warfare. In fact, in Etruscan religion, he was depicted as a monster-like figure who relished in bloodshed, with a remaining artifact showing him slaughtering Trojan prisoners alongside Achilles.

He hates outsiders and living mortals trying to enter Haides, though above all, he despises those who dare to interfere with his work. He also dislikes the current generation of humans, as their abandoned dreams and ambitions have caused a serious pollution problem to the underworldly rivers, especially in the Acheron where he works.

Despite his generally unpleasant personality, he is a genuinely nice and loving boyfriend to his longtime girlfriend Tisiphone. He also has a soft spot for children, and has personally paid for the passage fees of many young shades who didn't have any family to prepare their funerals for them.

## History

### Early Years

Charon is among the many gods created by Nyx and Erebus. Soon after his birth, he moved away from the Mansion of Night to the upper layers of the Underworld and began to transport shades across the Acheron river for a cut-throat price.

### The Titanomachy

During the Titanomachy, he and the rest of the chthonic gods swore an oath of servitude to Hades and the Olympian dynasty. As such, he was able to keep his duty as the ferryman across the Acheron river when the war ended in his side's favor, albeit at the cost of him having to follow Hades' much fairer price of an obolus or a danake for all passengers.

According to Hypnos, 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.

### 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

**Death Scythe**: Charon possesses and wields a death scythe as his main weapon of choice. It is about a head higher than him, with an oar-shaped handle and a gleaming blade made of Stygian Iron. Engraved upon the handle is the word "lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", which means "abandon hope all ye who enter here".

## 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.
* Despite popular belief, Charon is the ferryman of the Acheron, not the Styx.
* The quote engraved on his scythe/oar is taken from Dante's "Inferno", in which the line was written before the entrance into the Inferno, or "Hell".
* Charon's attributes include silver obols, oars, hammers, and serpents.
* Charon, the largest moon of the dwarf planet Pluto, is named after Charon.
	+ 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, Charon 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, Charon's 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".
	+ During the Korean War, the Outpost Harry that the Greek Expeditionary Force defended was dubbed "Outpost Haros" by the soldiers.