8/22/2019 The Ferryman and His Fee a Study in Ethnology, Archaeology, And Tradition by l. v. Grinsell

1/2

THE FERRYMAN AND HIS FEE: A STUDY IN ETHNOLOGY, ARCHAEOLOGY, AND TRADITION BY L.V. GRINSELLi.

From about 500 B.c. onwards, the scene of Charon ferrying the deadin his boat across the River Styx was represented on Greek funerary vasesand other objects, and described in Greek literature.Attic figured vases of the type known as white-ground lekythoi, mostlymade during the fifth century B.C., and latterly for funerary uses only,are often decorated with a painting of Charon receiving the dead into hisboat.

He is shown on ealier vases as a rough unkempt-looking Athenianseaman wearing a reddish-brown garment, a pole in his right hand, andreceiving with his left hand the deceased, who is often led to him byHermes, conductor of souls. Later vases show Charon as a more kindlyand refined personage. Examples of these painted vases are to be seenin the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, in the Manchester Museum, theBritish Museum, and elsewhere.10

An example sometime in a collectionin Athens showed the dead holding an obol in his fingers, which he is aboutto hand to Charon." This scene occurs also on an ancient Greek terracottalamp. The scene of Charon in his boat occurs on a Greek funerary

altar at Milan, and on other monuments.

Turning to the literary evidence, we may note first that there are noreferences to Charon in Homer. The earliest references are in the fifthcentury B.C. poem called the Minyad and in Aeschylus' Septem contraThebas, 842, also fifth century B.C. It was, Pausanias believed, the poemcalled the Minyad that inspired Polygnotus to paint a picture of Charonin his boat, which Pausanias described in detail.'4 In the Aeneid, Book 6,xli, Virgil (70-19 B.C.) gives a description of Charon which is very consistentwith the earlier representations on funerary lekythoi:

Charon there,

Grim ferryman, stands sentry. Mean his guise,His chin a wilderness of hoary hair,And like a flaming furnace stare his eyes.Hung in a loop around his shoulders liesA filthy gaberdine. He trims the sail,And, pole in hand, across the water pliesHis steel-grey shallop with the corpses pale,Old, but a God's old age has left him green and hale.

This description may well have been in the mind of the German painterArnold B6cklin, when he painted his famous picture of Charon; andreference should here be made, in passing, to the five versions of hiscelebrated picture, the Isle of the Dead, which inspired musical compositions

by Max Reger, Rachmaninoff, and others.It was said by VirgilJ5 that those who had not been honoured with afuneral had to wait on the shore for a hundred years before being admittedinto Charon's boat.Lucian, in his Dialogues of the Dead, written probably between A.D.150 and 16o, gave anr amusing account of a day when Charon, findingtrade somewhat slack, spent the rest of the day being shown round thisworld, to see how his customers spent their lives before requiring hisservices. Lucian also described a heated scene when a dead person whooffered his obol, or two obols, was refused passage because the boat was

8/22/2019 The Ferryman and His Fee a Study in Ethnology, Archaeology, And Tradition by l. v. Grinsell

2/2

full. But Mycillus the cobbler, not having a coin, was permitted to helpin rowing the boat instead (Lucian, The Infernall Ferrie).

The earliest ancient Greek graves containing coins are about 470 B.C.In those, the coin is usually placed in the grave only, or in the hand of thedead; but from the fourth century B.C. onwards it became the almostuniversal custom to place the coin in the mouth. This was because duringthe 400 years or so before the Christian era it was customary for theAthenians and many others to carry their small change wrapped up andtucked into the cheek.

(...)

Charon in his barque is sometimes figured on Roman sarcophagi inwhich both the art style and the subject are purely Greek,21 and thereare various illustrations of these scenes.22 A few cynical Romans wouldhave none of this superstition, and placed on their tombs inscriptionssuch as these :

" There is no boat of Hades, no ferryman Charon."" I shall not cross the waters of Acheron as a shade;Nor shall I propel the dusky boat with my oar;

I shall not fear Charon with his face of terror."