Charon (mythology)

He was portrayed as a gloomy old man in rags. Charon transports the dead along the waters of underground rivers, receiving payment for this (navlon) in one obol (according to funeral rites, located under the tongue of the dead). It transports only those dead whose bones have found peace in the grave. Only a golden branch, plucked from Persephone's grove, opens the way to the kingdom of death for a living person. Under no circumstances will it be transported back.

Etymology of the name

The name Charon is often explained as being derived from χάρων ( Charon), poetic form of the word χαρωπός ( charopos), which can be translated as “having a keen eye.” He is also referred to as having fierce, flashing or feverish eyes, or eyes of a bluish-gray color. The word can also be a euphemism for death. Blinking eyes may signify Charon's anger or temper, which is often mentioned in literature, but the etymology is not fully determined. The ancient historian Diodorus Siculus believed that the boatman and his name came from Egypt.

In art

In the first century BC, the Roman poet Virgil described Charon during Aeneas's descent into the underworld (Aeneid, Book 6), after the Sibyl of Cumae sent the hero to retrieve a golden branch that would allow him to return to the world of the living:

Gloomy and dirty Charon. A patchy gray beard
The whole face is overgrown - only the eyes burn motionless,
The cloak on the shoulders is tied in a knot and hangs ugly.
He pushes the boat with a pole and steers the sails himself,
The dead are transported on a fragile boat through a dark stream.
God is already old, but he retains vigorous strength even in old age.

Original text(lat.)

Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat
terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento
canities inculta iacet; stant lumina flamma,
sordidus ex umeris nodo dependet amictus.
Ipse ratem conto subigit, velisque ministrat,
et ferruginea subvectat corpora cymba,
iam senior, sed cruda deo viridisque senectus.

Other Roman authors also describe Charon, among them Seneca in his tragedy Hercules Furens, where Charon is described in lines 762-777 as an old man, dressed in dirty clothes, with drawn-in cheeks and an unkempt beard, is a cruel ferryman, steering his ship with a long pole. When the ferryman stops Hercules, not allowing him passage to the other side, greek hero proves his right of passage by force, defeating Charon with the help of his own pole.

In the second century AD, in Lucian's Discourses in the Kingdom of the Dead, Charon appeared, mainly in parts 4 and 10 ( "Hermes and Charon" And "Charon and Hermes") .

Mentioned in the poem "Miniada" by Prodicus of Phocea. Depicted in the painting of Polygnotus at Delphi, the ferryman across the Acheron. Actor Aristophanes' comedy "Frogs".

Underground geography

In most cases, including descriptions in Pausanias and, later, Dante, Charon is located near the Acheron River. Ancient Greek sources such as Pindar, Aeschylus, Euripides, Plato and Callimachus also place Charon on Acheron in their works. Roman poets, including Propertius, Publius and Statius, call the river Styx, perhaps following the description underworld in Virgil's Aeneid, where he was associated with both rivers.

In astronomy

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Notes

Myths of the peoples of the world. M., 1991-92. In 2 volumes. T.2. P.584
Euripides. Alcestis 254; Virgil. Aeneid VI 298-304
Lyubker F. Real dictionary of classical antiquities. M., 2001. In 3 volumes. T.1. P.322
Liddell and Scott A Greek-English Lexicon(Oxford: Clarendon Press 1843, 1985 printing), entries on χαροπός and χάρων, pp. 1980-1981; Brill's New Pauly(Leiden and Boston 2003), vol. 3, entry on "Charon, " pp. 202-203.
Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, "Reading" Greek Death(Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 359 and p. 390
Grinsell, L. V. (1957). "The Ferryman and His Fee: A Study in Ethnology, Archaeology, and Tradition". Folklore 68 (1): 257–269 .
Virgil, Aeneid 6.298-301, translated into English by John Dryden, into Russian by Sergei Osherov (English lines 413-417.)
See Ronnie H. Terpening, Charon and the Crossing: Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Transformations of a Myth(Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1985 and London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1985), pp. 97-98.
For an analysis of these dialogues, see Terpening, pp. 107-116.)
For an analysis of Dante's description of Charon and his other appearances in literature from ancient times until the 17th century in Italy, see Turpenin, Ron, Charon and the Crossing.
Pausanias. Description of Hellas X 28, 2; Miniada, fr.1 Bernabe
Pausanias. Description of Hellas X 28, 1
See for collected source passages with work and line annotations, as well as images from vase paintings.

15. Oleg Igorin Two banks of Charon

Excerpt characterizing Charon (mythology)

“Please, Princess... Prince...” Dunyasha said in a broken voice.
“Now, I’m coming, I’m coming,” the princess spoke hastily, not giving Dunyasha time to finish what she had to say, and, trying not to see Dunyasha, she ran to the house.
“Princess, God’s will is being done, you must be ready for anything,” said the leader, meeting her at the front door.
- Leave me. It is not true! – she angrily shouted at him. The doctor wanted to stop her. She pushed him away and ran to the door. “Why are these people with frightened faces stopping me? I don't need anyone! And what are they doing here? “She opened the door, and the bright daylight in this previously dim room terrified her. There were women and a nanny in the room. They all moved away from the bed to give her way. He was still lying on the bed; but the stern look of his calm face stopped Princess Marya at the threshold of the room.
“No, he’s not dead, that can’t be! - Princess Marya said to herself, walked up to him and, overcoming the horror that gripped her, pressed her lips to his cheek. But she immediately pulled away from him. Instantly, all the strength of tenderness for him that she felt in herself disappeared and was replaced by a feeling of horror at what was in front of her. “No, he is no more! He is not there, but there is right there, in the same place where he was, something alien and hostile, some terrible, terrifying and repulsive secret... - And, covering her face with her hands, Princess Marya fell into the arms of the doctor who supported her.
In the presence of Tikhon and the doctor, the women washed what he was, tied a scarf around his head so that his open mouth would not stiffen, and tied his diverging legs with another scarf. Then they dressed him in a uniform with orders and placed the small, shriveled body on the table. God knows who took care of this and when, but everything happened as if by itself. By nightfall, candles were burning around the coffin, there was a shroud on the coffin, juniper was strewn on the floor, a printed prayer was placed under the dead, shriveled head, and a sexton sat in the corner, reading the psalter.
Just as horses shy away, crowd and snort over a dead horse, so in the living room around the coffin a crowd of foreign and native people crowded - the leader, and the headman, and the women, and all with fixed, frightened eyes, crossed themselves and bowed, and kissed the cold and numb hand of the old prince.

Bogucharovo was always, before Prince Andrei settled there, an estate behind the eyes, and the Bogucharovo men had a completely different character from the Lysogorsk men. They differed from them in their speech, clothing, and morals. They were called steppe. The old prince praised them for their tolerance at work when they came to help with cleaning in the Bald Mountains or digging ponds and ditches, but did not like them for their savagery.
The last stay of Prince Andrei in Bogucharovo, with its innovations - hospitals, schools and ease of rent - did not soften their morals, but, on the contrary, strengthened in them those character traits that old prince called it savagery. There were always some vague rumors going around between them, either about the enumeration of all of them as Cossacks, then about the new faith to which they would be converted, then about some royal sheets, then about the oath to Pavel Petrovich in 1797 (about which they said that back then the will came out, but the gentlemen took it away), then about Peter Feodorovich, who will reign in seven years, under whom everything will be free and it will be so simple that nothing will happen. Rumors about the war in Bonaparte and his invasion were combined for them with the same unclear ideas about the Antichrist, the end of the world and pure will.
In the vicinity of Bogucharovo there were more and more large villages, state-owned and quitrent landowners. There were very few landowners living in this area; There were also very few servants and literate people, and in the life of the peasants of this area, those mysterious currents of Russian folk life, the causes and significance of which are inexplicable to contemporaries, were more noticeable and stronger than in others. One of these phenomena was the movement that appeared about twenty years ago between the peasants of this area to move to some warm rivers. Hundreds of peasants, including those from Bogucharov, suddenly began to sell their livestock and leave with their families somewhere to the southeast. Like birds flying somewhere across the seas, these people with their wives and children strove to the southeast, where none of them had been. They went up in caravans, bathed one by one, ran, and rode, and went there, to the warm rivers. Many were punished, exiled to Siberia, many died of cold and hunger along the way, many returned on their own, and the movement died down by itself just as it had begun without an obvious reason. But the underwater currents did not stop flowing in this people and gathered for some kind of new strength, which has to manifest itself just as strangely, unexpectedly and at the same time simply, naturally and strongly. Now, in 1812, for a person who lived close to the people, it was noticeable that these underwater jets were doing strong work and were close to manifestation.
Alpatych, having arrived in Bogucharovo some time before the death of the old prince, noticed that there was unrest among the people and that, contrary to what was happening in the Bald Mountains strip on a sixty-verst radius, where all the peasants left (letting the Cossacks ruin their villages), in the steppe strip , in Bogucharovskaya, the peasants, as was heard, had relations with the French, received some papers that passed between them, and remained in place. He knew through the servants loyal to him that the other day the peasant Karp, who had a great influence on the world, was traveling with a government cart, returned with the news that the Cossacks were ruining the villages from which the inhabitants were leaving, but that the French were not touching them. He knew that yesterday another man had even brought from the village of Visloukhova - where the French were stationed - a paper from the French general, in which the residents were told that no harm would be done to them and that they would pay for everything that was taken from them if they stayed. To prove this, the man brought from Visloukhov one hundred rubles in banknotes (he did not know that they were counterfeit), given to him in advance for the hay.
Finally, and most importantly, Alpatych knew that on the very day he ordered the headman to collect carts to take the princess’s train from Bogucharovo, there was a meeting in the village in the morning, at which it was supposed not to be taken out and to wait. Meanwhile, time was running out. The leader, on the day of the prince’s death, August 15, insisted to Princess Mary that she leave on the same day, as it was becoming dangerous. He said that after the 16th he is not responsible for anything. On the day of the prince’s death, he left in the evening, but promised to come to the funeral the next day. But the next day he could not come, since, according to the news he himself received, the French had unexpectedly moved, and he only managed to take his family and everything valuable from his estate.
For about thirty years Bogucharov was ruled by the elder Dron, whom the old prince called Dronushka.
Dron was one of those physically and morally strong men who, as soon as they get old, grow a beard, and so, without changing, live up to sixty or seventy years, without one gray hair or lack of teeth, as straight and strong at sixty as at thirty.
Dron, soon after moving to the warm rivers, in which he participated, like others, was made head mayor in Bogucharovo and since then he has served in this position impeccably for twenty-three years. The men were more afraid of him than the master. The gentlemen, the old prince, the young prince, and the manager, respected him and jokingly called him minister. Throughout his service, Dron was never drunk or sick; never, neither after sleepless nights, nor after any kind of work, did he show the slightest fatigue and, not knowing how to read and write, never forgot a single account of money and pounds of flour for the huge carts that he sold, and not a single shock of snakes for bread on every tithe of Bogucharovo fields.

In cases where the river blocked the entrance to afterworld, the soul of the deceased could cross its waters in several ways: by swimming, crossing on a canoe, crossing a bridge, crossing with the help of an animal, or on the shoulders of a deity. It seems that the oldest method of crossing the real and not too deep river, there was a ford there. In this case, it is most likely that young and strong men carried children, sick and weak people on themselves so that they would not be carried away by the current. Perhaps this ancient method of crossing formed the basis of the saga of Thor, who carried Orvandill the Bold across the “noisy waters.” This plot was later reworked in the Christian spirit and became known as the story of St. Christopher, i.e. the bearer of Christ. Briefly this story is this.

A giant named Oferush was engaged in carrying wanderers on himself through a stormy and swift stream, “in the depths of which everyone who wanted to drown drowned.” cross to the other side." One day, at the request of the child-Christ, he began to carry him on his shoulders through a seething stream and felt an incredible weight on his shoulders. Turning to the child, the giant asked in fear why it was so heavy for him, as if he had lifted him on his shoulders the whole world. "You raised the one who created the world!" - the child answered him. " Western peoples represent St. Christopher as a giant with a terrible face and the same red hair that Thor had... Eastern legends give St. Christopher with a dog's head, with which he was depicted on ancient icons. cannot swim across, and not one of the dead can overcome, in order to return to the living, both the ferryman and the guardian of this river, carrying souls to the other side.

It was imagined that the river, bridge or entrance to the afterlife was guarded, and the guards were either anthropomorphic creatures or animals. In Nganasan mythology, the souls of the dead are transported independently - by swimming. And no one guards the approaches to the village of the dead. The Orochi made a coffin from an old boat, and the Khanty buried their dead in a boat sawn crosswise: one part served as a coffin, the other as a lid. The image of a man sitting in a fishing boat without oars meant being sent to the lower world. It is interesting that in Manchu mythology the spirit Dokhoolo age (“lame brother”), one-eyed and crooked-nosed, on half a boat ferries the souls of the dead across the river to the kingdom of the dead, rowing with half an oar. This deterioration of the body and the half-heartedness of the craft indicate that the carrier himself was a dead man. Perhaps Manchu mythology retained ancient performance about the carrier himself as if he were dead.

In others mythological systems this role is played by a person without external signs involvement in the other world, except perhaps the slovenly and senile appearance of Charon, or the head turned backwards of the Egyptian ferryman, make it possible to make such an assumption. However, in the mythological representations of the Nganasans, Orochs and Khanty, guards of the underworld do not appear. The Evenks allow the soul of the deceased to enter the afterlife buni depended on his mistress: on her orders, one of the dead got into a birch bark boat and sailed to the opposite shore to pick up the soul and transport it to buni. No special carrier, no guard. But in the mythological ideas of the Evenks, the river connecting all three worlds had an owner, its owner and guardian - kalir. a giant moose with antlers and a fish tail, although it did not play any role in the crossing to the afterlife.

In the mythological ideas of other peoples, “specialization” is already noticeable: the motive of owning a boat indicates that the image of a carrier to the afterlife was based on the idea of real-life people, whose job was to transport people across the river. So the “afterlife” boat had an owner, and when people learned to build bridges, the idea of an owner and guardian of the bridge arose. It is possible that it arose from the fact that initially, perhaps, a fee similar to that charged for transportation was charged for crossing the bridge.

Among the Mansi, such a carrier was considered to be the god of the underworld himself - Kul-Otyr, from touching whose black fur coat a person fell ill and died. In Sumerian-Akkadian mythology there was an idea of the unburied souls of the dead returning to earth and bringing disaster. The souls of the buried dead were transported across the “river that separates people from people” and is the border between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Souls were transported across the river on the boat of the carrier of the underworld Ur-Shanabi or the demon Khumut-Tabala. The carrier Ur-Shanabi was considered the consort of the goddess Nanshe, whose name spelling included the sign for fish. She was revered as a fortuneteller and interpreter of dreams. The Sumerians buried the deceased with a certain amount of silver, “which he had to give as payment for transportation to “the man on the other side of the river”.” (4)

In Finnish mythology, the role of the carrier across the river was played by the maiden Manala, in the German-Scandinavian maiden Modgug was the guardian of the bridge, in Iranian - beautiful girl with two dogs, met the deceased at the bridge and took him to the other side. (Videvdat, 19, 30). In later Zoroastrian texts, Sraosha, armed with a spear, mace and battle ax, met the soul of the deceased at the Chinvat bridge leading to the afterlife, and transferred it for a bribe of baked bread.

IN Egyptian mythology By sailing on a boat, the deceased pharaoh could reach the eastern part of the sky. “The deceased had to be transported by a special carrier, who in the Pyramid Texts is called “the one looking behind him.”(5) He was also called the “carrier of the reed field” - sekhet iaru, the desired place of residence of the gods in the east. However, the ancient Egyptians also had an idea about the afterlife, located in the west. The goddess of the west, that is, the kingdom of the dead, was Amentet. She extended her hands to the dead, welcoming them to the land of the dead. Almost the same name - Aminon - was borne by the guard of the bridge leading to the land of the dead in Ossetian mythology. She asked the dead what they did good and bad during their lifetime, and according to the answer, she showed them the path to hell or heaven.

Finally, in Greek mythology Charon was the carrier of souls across the river and its guardian: “The waters of the underground rivers are guarded by a terrible carrier - / Gloomy and formidable Charon. A scraggly gray beard / is overgrown all over his face - only his eyes burn motionless, / The cloak on his shoulders is tied in a knot and hangs ugly, / He drives the boat with a pole and steers the sails himself, / He transports the dead on a fragile canoe across a dark stream. / God is already old, but he retains vigorous strength even in old age.” (6) The carrier was to be paid, so a coin was placed in the dead man’s mouth. In Russian funeral rituals, money was thrown into the grave to pay for transportation. The Vepsians also did the same, throwing copper money into the grave, however, according to most informants, this was done to buy a place for the deceased. The Khanty threw several coins into the water, to the deities - the owners of the cape, noticeable rocks, stones past which they swam.

Afterworld. Myths about the afterlife Petrukhin Vladimir Yakovlevich

Carrier of souls

The afterlife is located, as a rule, behind a body of water - a river or sea. Even the dead are delivered to the heavenly world by a heavenly boat, for example the boat of the Sun in Egyptian myths.

The most famous carrier to the next world is, of course, the Greek Charon. He retained his place even in Dante's Inferno. IN Greek myth and a ritual sufficiently rationalized by the laws of the ancient polis (which regulated funeral rite), Charon was supposed to pay for transportation with a coin (obol), which was placed under the tongue of the dead man. This custom has spread among many peoples of the world. Hermes, the messenger of the gods, who knew all the paths, was considered the guide of souls to the border of Hades.

Hermes calls the souls of Penelope's suitors, killed by Odysseus, from their bodies and, waving his magic golden rod - the caduceus, takes them to the underworld: the souls fly after him with a squeal. Hermes leads the souls of the suitors

...to the limits of fog and decay;

Past the Lefkada rock and the rushing waters of the ocean,

Past the gates of Helios, past the borders where the gods are

Dreams dwell, winnowed shadows on Asphodilon

A meadow where the souls of the departed fly in flocks of air.

Anyone who found himself at the Styx without money had to either wander along its gloomy shore or look for a bypass ford. Charon was also the guardian of Hades and transported across the Styx only those who were honored with proper burial rites.

The Styx borders Hades from the west, receiving the waters of the tributaries of the Acheron, Phlegethon, Cocytus, Aornitus and Lethe. The Styx, which means “hateful,” is a stream in Arcadia whose waters were considered deadly poisonous; Only later mythographers began to “place” him in Hades. Acheron - “stream of sadness” and Cocytus - “wailing” - these names are intended to show the ugliness of death. Lethe means "forgetfulness." Phlegethon - "blazing" - refers to the custom of cremation or the belief that sinners burn in lava flows.

Only the most powerful heroes - Hercules and Theseus - could force Charon to transport them alive to Hades. Aeneas was able to get there thanks to the fact that the prophetess Sibylla showed Charon a golden branch from the garden of the goddess of the underworld Persephone. To another guardian of the underworld - monstrous dog She threw a cake with sleeping pills to Cerberus (Kerberus). Each deceased had to have a honey cake with him in order to distract this dog with three heads and a snake tail, whose entire body was also strewn with snakes. Cerberus, however, guarded not so much the entrance to the other world as the exit: he made sure that souls did not return to the world of the living.

Naturally, in the myths and rituals of a people separated from the mainland by sea - the Scandinavians - the motif of a funeral boat during the crossing to the next world is often found.

In the Saga of the Volsungs, the hero Sigmund, a descendant of Odin, takes the corpse of Sinfjötli’s son and wanders with him to God knows where until he comes to a fjord. There he meets a carrier with a small canoe. He asks if Sigmund wants to transport the body to the other side. The king agrees, but there was not enough space for Sigmund in the shuttle, and as soon as the mysterious carrier took Sinfjötli, the shuttle immediately disappeared. It was, of course, Odin who took his descendant to Valhalla.

Ancient mythology is a separate part of literature that fascinates the reader with its rich world and beautiful language. Besides the most interesting stories and tales about heroes, it reflects the foundations of the universe, indicates the place of man in it, as well as his dependence on the will, in turn, they were often similar to people with their passions, desires and vices. Charon occupied a special place - mythology predetermined his place as a carrier between the world of the living and the dead.

What did the world look like?

We will look in more detail at who Charon was and what he looked like. Mythology clearly indicates that in fact there are three lights at once: underground, aboveground and underwater. Although the underwater world can be safely attributed to the terrestrial world. So, these three kingdoms were ruled by three brothers, equal in power and importance: Zeus, Poseidon and Hades for the Greeks (Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto for the Romans). But still the main thing was considered Zeus the Thunderer, however, he did not interfere in the affairs of his brothers.

People inhabited the world of the living - the kingdom of Zeus, but after death their bodies were consigned to the grave, and their souls went to the abode of Hades. And the first person, so to speak, whom the soul met on the way to hell was Charon. Mythology considers him to be both a carrier and a guard, and probably because he vigilantly ensured that no living people boarded his boat and did not return back, and he took a certain fee for his work.

Ancient mythology: Charon

The son of Erebus and Nyx, Darkness and Night, the ferryman from the underworld had a boat warped by worms. It is generally accepted that he transported souls through, but, according to another version, he floated along the Acheron River. Most often he was described as a very gloomy old man, dressed in rags.

Dante Alighieri, creator of " Divine Comedy", placed Charon in the first circle of hell. Probably, it was here that the underground river that separated the world of the living and the dead carried its waters. Virgil acted as Dante's guide and ordered the carrier to take the poet alive into his boat. How did Charon appear before him, what did he look like? Roman mythology does not contradict Hellenic mythology: the old man had a terrifying appearance. His braids were disheveled, tangled and gray, his eyes burned with a fierce fire.

There is one more nuance that mythology mentions: Charon transported only in one direction and only those people who were buried in graves with all the rituals performed. And one of mandatory conditions was to provide the deceased with a coin with which he could pay the carrier. The obol was placed under the tongue of the dead, and it is likely that without money it was impossible to go to ancient hell.

Charon and the living people

Now the reader knows what Charon looked like (mythology). There is no photo, of course, but many artists have depicted a gloomy old god from the underworld on their canvases. As you know, the carrier put him in his boat without any problems dead Souls, charging for it. If there were souls who did not have an obol, then they had to wait a hundred years to get to the other side for free.

However, there were also living people who, by their own will or by someone else’s, went to Hades before their time. Virgil’s “Aeneid” says that only a branch from a golden tree growing in the grove of Persephone (the wife of Hades) could serve as a pass for them. It was this that Aeneas used at the prompting of the Sibyl.

By cunning, Orpheus forced himself to be transported to the other side: no one from the world of the living and the dead, neither gods nor mortals, could resist the sounds of his golden cithara. Hercules, performing one of his labors, also came to Hades. But the god Hermes helped him - he ordered him to be taken to the ruler world of the dead. According to another version, the hero forced Charon to transport him, for which the carrier was later punished by Pluto.

Charon in art

Charon did not appear in mythology right away. Homer did not mention him in his epics, but already at the end of the 6th century. BC e. this character appeared and firmly took his place. He was often depicted on vases, his image was used in plays (Aristophanes, Lucian, Prodicus). Artists often resorted to this character. A genius artist During the Renaissance, Michelangelo, while working on decorations in the Vatican, painted Charon on the canvas “The Day of Judgment.” Gloomy deity ancient world and here it does its job, only it transports the souls of sinners, and not all the dead in a row.

Charon, Greek - son of the god of eternal darkness Erebus and the goddess of the night Nikta, carrier of the dead to the underworld.

With such a gloomy origin and occupation, it is not surprising that Charon was a rude and grumpy old man. He was engaged in transportation across the River Styx or, and only to the afterlife, but not in the opposite direction. Charon transported only the souls of the dead, buried according to all the rules; the souls of the unburied were doomed to wander forever along the shores afterlife rivers or, according to less strict ideas, at least a hundred years. For transportation, which was one of the few living things that ended up in the afterlife, Charon worked in chains for a whole year on the orders of Hades. Charon demanded a reward for delivering the souls of the dead to Hades. Therefore, the Greeks placed a coin (one obol) under the tongue of the dead. Why Charon needed money in the afterlife - no one knew. In any case, everyone notes the dirty and ragged appearance of this strange god (and Charon really was a god), his ragged, uncut beard. The custom of providing the dead with money for the journey persisted in the Greco-Roman world long after the victory of Christianity and penetrated into the funeral customs of other peoples.

Ancient artists usually depicted Charon on funerary reliefs and vases, for example, in the Athenian cemetery of Kerameikos and other burial sites. Perhaps Charon is also depicted in a large rock relief near the former Antioch, present-day Antakya in southern Turkey.

Charon, as the carrier of the dead, is also present on the famous " Last Judgment» Michelangelo in Sistine Chapel in the Vatican (see fragment above).

In V. A. Zhukovsky’s poem “Ceres’s Complaint”:
“Charon’s boat is forever sailing,
But he only takes shadows.”

The river in the underworld is Styx. The kingdom of the dead of the god Hades. Which river did Charon transport the dead along?