Charon

By the way, Pluto, the first moon was discovered around Pluto.

It was named Charon, or I think in the Greek is Charon.

And Charon is the ferry boat driver who carries your soul across the river Styx to Hades.

Makes sense.

Pluto, god of the underworld.

Thanatos and Hypnos sometimes appear again, laying a dead person gently in the tomb.

On other vases, the dead are shown being met at the River of the Underworld by Charon, the ferryman, waiting in his boat.

These images were made to be buried with the dead and to comfort the living who buried them.

Death in them is quiet, solemn, and almost kind.

In the last book of the Odyssey, Homer describes Hermes leading the souls of the suitors killed by Odysseus down to the underworld, driving them before him with his golden wand, while they follow him, squeaking and gibbering like bats in the depths of a cave, past the streams of ocean and the white rock.

past the gates of the sun and the land of dreams, to the meadow of Asphodel, where the souls of the dead dwell.

On the painted funeral vases of Athens, Hermes is often shown leading a dead person gently by the hand or waiting beside Charon's boat.

Charon was the ferryman of the dead, who carried the souls across the river that separated the world of the living from the underworld.

Yes, exactly.

And so I've always loved, like, Greek mythology, and I wanted the – The ferryman to kind of base his ideals and things to kind of interweave them with Charon, Chiron.

There's so many different ways that people say it.

Yeah, I think people pronounce it different ways.

Yes, exactly.

And so I've always loved, like, Greek mythology, and I wanted the – The ferryman to kind of base his ideals and things to kind of interweave them with Charon, Chiron.

There's so many different ways that people say it.

Yeah, I think people pronounce it different ways.

So yeah, he'd accompany you to Hades.

He'd drop you off with Charon, the ferryman who crossed the River Styx, took you across the River Styx, and then you were officially in the underworld, right? And the fact that Thanatos' job was to guide you, the dead person's spirit or soul or whatever you want to call it, that makes him a very specific kind of personification of death, a psychopomp.

Which is, it's a pretty word to look at in some ways.

Yeah, and that's, there has to be a band named Psychopomp.

So we want to make this character inviting.

Um, So crossing the river Styx, the guide that is usually there with a lantern or somebody steering the boat is Charon, I think.

That's how you say it.

But that's probably the most famous example.

So literally, Kraut, that's the boundary between the two worlds is the river Styx.

A gray area, if you would.

And then Charon is the ferryman of the dead.

He transports souls across the waters of the underworld.

Acheron was one of the rivers in the Greek underworld that was believed to separate, depending on the source, the realm of the living and the realm of the dead.

And I say depending on the source because in some instances, writers are noting that it's the Acheron, that Charon, the ferryman.

He is ferrying souls across, but in other writings, it's noted that it's the Styx.

So it kind of depends on the source author.

But now, no more delays.

Grab your golden bell and keep a coin ready for Charon.

And please do not annoy Cerberus, because today we are following one of the most famous journeys into the Roman underworld, Aeneas' journey into the Aeneid.

And in this episode, we'll talk about what Romans thought happened after death, how their underworld compared with the Greek version, the Sibyl, Charon, Cerberus, Tartarus, Elysium, and the Mysterious Rivers, and how Aeneas basically gets shown a trailer for the future of Rome.

So finally, let's enter the Roman underworld.

Before we start our journey, there's one thing we need to clear up.

Eventually.

And waiting there is someone Greek mythology fans will recognize immediately.

All the dead go to Hades via a series of rivers.

First, you cross the River Styx, ferried by the psychopomp called Charon, or Karen, I think it's also [laughs] known.

I think it's maybe correctly pronounced as.

Then you go to the gates guarded by Cerberus, the three-headed dog.

That's the first thing you see.

And you are an indentured servant to Charon in Hades.

serving off your crime that you committed in the mortal world that you are completely unaware of because the memory has been wiped from you.

But you belong to this penitent class of souls that owes the rest of the universe something.