ABSTRACT
Son of Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night); ferryman of the dead across the river Styx to their final abode in Hades’ realm. He was portrayed as a squalid, mean old man with a bad temper, but very sprightly. He demanded the fee of an obol from his passengers, and it was the custom of the Greeks to bury the dead with this coin in their mouths. When Heracles forced him to ferry him into the Underworld, Hades punished Charon by binding him in chains for a year.
