Charon's obol is an
allusive term for the
coin placed in or on the mouth of a dead person before burial.
Greek and
Latin literary sources specify the coin as an
obol, and explain it as a payment or bribe for
Charon, the
ferryman who conveyed souls across the river that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. Archaeological examples of these coins, of various denominations in practice, have been called "the most famous
grave goods from
antiquity."