Hades is described in Greek literature as a cold, dark, damp, and mirthless place, which it is everyone’s fate to end up, that is until post-5th century BCE writers created an alternative destination for good souls. (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich) / Photo by Carole Raddato, Flickr, Creative Commons Often Hermes escorts the soul to Charon, who then takes them deeper into the underworld for judgement.Īttic white-ground Lekythos depicting Charon, the ferryman of Hades, pushing his boat across the Acheron, c. Often accompanying Charon is the messenger god Hermes, who was thought to act as a guide to the dead in Hades. The destination was Hades, which was the Greek underworld (and also the name of the god who ruled there), or, more precisely, the inner part of that realm. His name may have originally meant ‘fierce brightness’.Ĭharon’s job was to transport the shades or souls of the dead across either a river – most typically named as the Acheron and, in later sources, the poisonous Styx – or a lake, often called Acherousia. In Greek mythology, Charon is the son of Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night).

The Greek Charon as the boatman of the dead is an idea which may well have been influenced by Mesopotamian and Egyptian mythology, where there, too, the Underworld contains rivers which hinder the progress of the soul. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) / Photo by Peter Roan, Flickr, Creative Commons To the right is Hermes, identified by his kerykeion or herald’s staff and fulfilling one of his functions as guide to the dead.

450 BCE showing Charon, the boatman who ferried souls across the river Styx to Hades.

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