CHARON

Imagine a place were sunlight never reached. Cold and dark, gloomy and cloudy, The Underworld. Home of the Dead. Hades' lair. But it was also home to two other things...

Cerberus, a three headed dog with a dragon's tail. Charon, the ferry man of the River Styx and the River Acheron. If you find your life has ebbed away, if life is nothing but a memory, if your sight is black, then you have probably had your string of life cut and are no longer there. In short, you're dead and are about to meet CHARON. He is a worker of the Greek God Hades. Anyone who dies meets Charon. And of course, Orpheus, who gets in by playing the lyre, and his music was beautiful.

CREATION AND FAMILY.

Charon's Mum and Dad were Lady Nyx and Lord Erebus. Nyx also gave birth to Thanatos, Daemon of death, and Hypnos, Daemon of Sleep. Strangely, Charon is older than Zeus but unlike the Greek God, Charon had no god-like powers whatsoever. He did have to be fit, though. You need to have pistons for arms to have that job! Contorted and withered, parched and pale, he was ugly, according to the historians.

ROLE.

Charon is most famous for boating the dead over to the Underworld. He was a deity where Hades ruled like a cruel snake on a stone. He only ever took dead people who had had a proper burial. He is described as a 'psychopomp' (someone who ferries the dead) by many, but some say he's a spirit or a Demon. He travelled on the Styx and the Acheron by ferry boat, stalking the rivers in silence. The "luxury" ferry turned out to be an old, wind-battered dingy, with a small, torn sail.

BEHAVIOUR.

Charon noted those who did not pay his fee were to walk the shores of Styx, forever wandering the baron land, withered plants washed along an endless river but never allowed to cross. He was also very strong and would use the ferry pole as a deadly weapon if he had to. His fee was a single coin in the dry, parched, cut, rippled mouth of the dead. Only Orpheus was known to cross without having died. Legend says he did this by hypnotising Charon with beautiful music played on his lyre.