In Greek Mythology, Who is Charon?
In the tradition of Greek mythology, Charon is a man who lives in the underworld. He is the son of Erebus and Nyx, and it is his responsibility to ferry the dead between the world of the living and the underworld, across the river Styx. In some myths, he carries the dead over the river Acheron, the “river of woe” which supposedly leads to the underworld. Charon appears in numerous stories, plays, and myths, and a version of Charon lives on in Greek folklore as an angel of death. Charon’s services do not come gratis with death. Although Hermes may have taken the souls of the dead to the banks of the river for free, Charon demands a fee. People who were unable to pay the fee were doomed to wander the shores of the river for 100 years. Since most Greeks, understandably, did not want to wander in the mists and marshes, they buried their dead with coins to pay the ferryman; this tradition is still retained in many parts of Greece.
