In
Greek mythology,
Charon or
Kharon ( or ;
Greek Χάρων) is the ferryman of
Hades who
carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers
Styx and
Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A
coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an
obolus or
danake, was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person. Some authors say that those who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were left unburied, had to wander the shores for one hundred years. In the
catabasis mytheme, heroes – such as
Heracles,
Orpheus,
Aeneas,
Theseus,
Sisyphus,
Dionysus,
Odysseus and
Psyche – journey to the underworld and return, still alive, conveyed by the boat of Charon.