Who transports the dead to the realm. River Styx. Ferryman Charon on the River Styx

To understand the history of the mysterious river Styx, you should plunge into mythology a little. So, in distant mythical times, the world was divided between the gods (Zeus, Hades and Poseidon) into three parts. The dungeon was dominated by the dark, and the gloomy old man Charon transported the dead souls through the Styx. The river flowed in the underworld, the entrance to which was guarded by the three-headed Cerberus, on whose neck curled

During the funeral rite, a coin was placed in the mouth of the deceased as a tribute to the god of the dungeon. It was believed that the soul that did not offer payment would be doomed to forever loiter along the banks of the Styx. The power of Hades was very great. And despite the fact that his brother Zeus was higher in rank, the god of the underworld had tremendous power. The laws in his domain were inflexible. And the order in the kingdom is indestructible and strong, so the gods swore by the waters of the sacred river Styx. He could not pull out anyone who fell into the underworld: Charon melted into the kingdom of the dead, but never back - to where the sun shines.

The River Styx is poisonous, but it can also grant immortality. The expression "Achilles' heel" is directly related to this river. Achilles' mother Thetis dipped her son into the waters of Styx, thanks to which the hero became invincible. And only the "heel", for which his mother held, remained vulnerable.

In reality, it does not exist. Except that in Perm they named one of the rivers that separates the city from the cemetery.

Ancient mythology is a separate part of literature that captivates the reader with its rich world and beautiful language. In addition to the most interesting plots and tales about heroes, it displays the foundations of the universe, indicates the place of a person in it, as well as his dependence on the will, in turn, they often looked like people with their passions, desires and vices. Charon occupied a special place - mythology predetermined for him the place of a carrier between the world of the living and the dead.

What did the world look like?

We will take a closer look 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 can be safely attributed to the terrestrial world. So, these three kingdoms were ruled by three brothers, equal in strength and significance: Zeus, Poseidon and Hades among the Greeks (Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto among the Romans). But nevertheless, Zeus the Thunderer was considered the main one, but he did not get involved in the affairs of his brothers.

People inhabited the world of the living - the kingdom of Zeus, but after death their bodies were buried, and the soul went to the abode of Hades. And the first person, if I may say so, whom the soul met on the way to hell, was Charon. Mythology considers him both a carrier and a guard, and probably because he vigilantly watched so that the living did not get into his boat, did not return back, and he took a certain fee for his work.

Ancient Mythology: Charon

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

Dante Alighieri, the creator of the 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 ferryman to take the poet into his boat alive. What appeared before him, what did Charon look like? Roman mythology does not contradict Hellenic: the old man had a frightening appearance. His braids were disheveled, tangled and gray, his eyes burned with a fierce fire.

There is another nuance that mythology mentions: Charon transported only in one direction and only those people who were buried in graves with all the rites performed. And one of the prerequisites 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 get into the ancient hell.

Charon and living people

Now the reader knows what Charon looked like (mythology). The photo, of course, is missing, but many artists depicted on their canvases a gloomy old god from the underworld. As you know, the carrier put dead souls into his boat without any problems, taking a fee for this. If souls came across 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, went to Hades before their time. Virgil's Aeneid says that only a branch from a golden tree growing in the grove of Persephone (wife of Hades) could serve as a pass for them. It was she who took advantage of Aeneas at the prompt 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 to deliver the dead to the ruler of the world. According to another version, the hero forced Charon to transport him by force, for which the carrier was later punished by Pluto.

Charon in art

Charon did not appear in mythology immediately. 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, Prodik). Often, artists resorted to this character. And the brilliant Renaissance artist Michelangelo, working on the design in the Vatican, painted Charon on the canvas “The Day of the Last Judgment”. The gloomy deity of the ancient world does its job here too, only transporting the souls of sinners, and not all the dead in a row.

In ours, we have already mentioned a gloomy figure, which is necessary for the disembodied entity to cross the Edge of the Worlds. Many peoples saw the Edge of the Worlds in the form of a river, often a fiery one (for example, the Slavic Currant River, the Greek Styx and Acheron, etc.). In this regard, it is clear that the creature that takes souls across this line was often perceived in the form boatman-carrier .
This river is Oblivion River, and the passage through it means not only the transfer of the soul from the world of the living to the world of the dead, but also the breaking of any connection, memory, attachment to the Supermundane world. That is why it is a River of no return, because there are no more motives for crossing it. It is clear that the function Carrier, carrying out this rupture of bonds, is critically important for the process of disincarnation. Without his work, the soul will be drawn again and again to places and people dear to it, and, therefore, will turn into utukku- a wandering dead.

Being a manifestation of the Carrier of Souls, it is a necessary participant in the drama of death. It should be noted that the Carrier is unilateral engine - it only takes souls to the realm of the dead, but never (with the exception of rare mythological incidents) does not return them back.

The first to discover the need for this character were the ancient Sumerians, in whom the function of such a conductor was performed by Namtarru- the ambassador of the queen of the kingdom of the dead, Ereshkigal. It is on his orders that the Gallu demons take the soul to the kingdom of the dead. It should be noted that Namtarru was also the son of Ereshkigal, that is, he occupied a rather high position in the hierarchy of the gods.

The Egyptians also made extensive use of the ferryman in stories about the journey of the soul after death. This function, among others, was attributed Anubis— Lord of the Duat, the first part of the underworld. There is an interesting parallel between the dog-headed Anubis and the Gray Wolf - the Guide to the other world of Slavic legends. In addition, not without reason, and, the God of the Open Gates, was also depicted in the guise of a Winged Dog. The appearance of the Watchdog of the worlds is one of the most ancient experiences of a collision with the dual nature of the Threshold. The dog was often the guide of the soul, and it was often sacrificed at the tomb to accompany the deceased on the road to the next world. This function of the Guard was adopted from the Greeks Cerberus.

Among the Etruscans, at first the role of the Carrier was performed by Turmas(the Greek Hermes, who retained this function of the psychopomp - the driver of souls in later mythology), and then - Haru (Harun), who, apparently, was perceived by the Greeks as Charon. The classical mythology of the Greeks shared ideas about the Psychopomp (the “guide” of souls, responsible for the souls leaving the manifested world, the importance of which we have already discussed) and the Carrier, which acts as a guardian - the Gatekeeper. Hermes Psychopomp in classical mythology seated his wards in Charon's boat.

Elder Charon (Χάρων - "bright", in the sense of "Sparkling eyes") - the most famous personification of the Carrier in classical mythology. For the first time the name of Charon is mentioned in one of the poems of the epic cycle - Miniada.
Charon transports the dead along the waters of underground rivers, receiving for this a payment of one obol (according to the funeral rite, located under the tongue of the dead). This custom was widespread among the Greeks not only in the Hellenic, but also in the Roman period of Greek history, was preserved in the Middle Ages and is even observed to the present. Charon transports only those dead, whose bones found rest in the grave. Virgil Charon is an old man covered with mud, with a disheveled gray beard, fiery eyes, in dirty clothes. Protecting the waters of the river Acheron (or Styx), with the help of a pole, he transports shadows on a canoe, and he takes some into the canoe, others, who have not received burial, drives away from the shore. According to legend, Charon was chained for a year because he transported Hercules across Acheron. As a representative of the underworld, Charon later came to be considered a demon of death: in this sense, he passed, under the names of Charos and Charontas, to modern Greeks, who represent him either in the form of a black bird descending on his victim, or in the form of a rider pursuing in the air crowd of the dead.

Northern mythology, although it does not focus on the river surrounding the worlds, nevertheless knows about it. On the bridge over this river Gyoll), for example, Hermod meets with the giantess Modgud, who lets him go to Hel, and, apparently, Odin (Harbard) refuses to transport Thor across the same river. Interestingly, in the last episode, the Great Ace himself assumes the function of the Carrier, which once again emphasizes the high status of this usually inconspicuous figure. In addition, the fact that Thor was on the opposite bank of the river indicates that, besides Harbard, there was another boatman for whom such crossings were commonplace.

In the Middle Ages, the idea of the Transportation of Souls was developed and continued. Procopius of Caesarea, a historian of the Gothic War (6th century), gives a story about how the souls of the dead are sent by sea to the island of Brittia: “ Fishermen, merchants and farmers live along the coast of the mainland. They are subjects of the Franks, but do not pay taxes, because from time immemorial they have had a heavy duty to transport the souls of the dead. Carriers wait in their huts every night for a conventional knock on the door and the voices of invisible creatures calling them to work. Then people immediately get up from their beds, impelled by an unknown force, go down to the shore and find boats there, but not their own, but others', completely ready to go and empty. Carriers get into the boats, take up the oars and see that, from the weight of numerous invisible passengers, the boats are sitting deep in the water, a finger from the side. In an hour they reach the opposite shore, and meanwhile, in their boats, they could hardly have managed to overcome this path in a whole day. Having reached the island, the boats are unloaded and become so light that only the keel touches the water. Carriers do not see anyone on their way and on the shore, but they hear a voice that calls the name, rank and kinship of each arrival, and if this is a woman, then the rank of her husband ».

Afterworld. Myths about the afterlife Petrukhin Vladimir Yakovlevich

Soul Carrier

The underworld is located, as a rule, beyond the water area - 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 hell. In Greek myth and ritual, sufficiently rationalized by the laws of the ancient polis (which also regulated the funeral rite), Charon was supposed to pay for the transportation of a coin (obol), which was placed under the dead man's tongue. This custom has spread among many peoples of the world. Hermes - the messenger of the gods, who knew all the ways, was considered the guide of souls to the border of Hades.

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

... to the limits of fog and decay;

Past Lefkada rocks and the swift waters of the ocean,

Past the gates of Helios, past the limits where the gods

Sleep dwell, winnowed shadows on Asphodilon

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

Those who found themselves at 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 through the Styx only those who were awarded the correct funeral rite.

Styx limits Hades from the west, taking in the waters of the tributaries of the Acheron, Phlegethon, Kokit, Aornith and Lethe. Styx, which means "hated", is a stream in Arcadia, the waters of which were considered deadly poisonous; only late mythographers began to “place” him in Hades. Acheron - "stream of sadness" and Kokit - "groaning" - these names are intended to show the ugliness of death. Leta means forgetfulness. Phlegeton - "flaming" - refers to the custom of cremation or the belief that sinners are burned in lava flows.

Only the most powerful heroes - Hercules and Theseus - could force Charon to transport them to Hades alive. Aeneas was able to penetrate there due 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 - the monstrous dog Cerberus (Cerberus), she threw a cake with sleeping pills. Each deceased had to have a honey cake with him to distract this dog with three heads and a snake tail, the whole body of which was also strewn with snakes. Cerberus guarded, however, not so much the entrance to the other world as the exit: he made sure that the souls did not return to the world of the living.

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

In the Volsunga Saga, the hero Sigmund, a descendant of Odin, takes the corpse of Sinfjotli's son and wanders with him no one knows where until he comes to the 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 Sinfjotli, the boat immediately disappears. It was, of course, Odin who took his descendant to Valhalla.

Charon (Χάρων), in Greek myth-making and history:

1. The son of Nikta, a gray-haired carrier who shuttled across the Acheron River to the underworld of the shadow of the dead. For the first time the name Charon is mentioned in one of the poems of the epic cycle - Miniade; this image has received special distribution since the 5th century BC, as evidenced by the frequent mention of Charon in Greek dramatic poetry and the interpretation of this plot in painting. In the famous painting by Polygnotus, painted by him for the Delphic Forest and depicting the entrance to the underworld, along with numerous figures, Charon was also depicted. Vase painting, judging by the finds recovered from the graves, used the figure of Charon to depict a stereotypical picture of the arrival of the dead on the shore of Acheron, where a gloomy old man was waiting for the newcomers with his canoe. The idea of Charon and the crossing awaiting every person after death is also reflected in the custom of putting a copper coin worth two obols into the mouth of the deceased between the teeth, which was supposed to serve as a reward to Charon for his efforts on the crossing. This custom was widespread among the Greeks not only in the Hellenic, but also in the Roman period of Greek history, was preserved in the Middle Ages and is even observed today.

Charon, Dante and Virgil in the Waters of the Styx, 1822
artist Eugene Delacroix, Louvre

Charon - carrier of souls
dead on the waters of Hades

Later, the attributes and features of the Etruscan god of death were transferred to the image of Charon, who, in turn, took the Etruscan name Harun. With the features of an Etruscan deity, Virgil presents Charon to us in the VI song of the Aeneid. In Virgil, Charon is an old man covered with mud, with a disheveled gray beard, fiery eyes, in dirty clothes. Protecting the waters of Acheron, with the help of a pole, he transports shadows on a canoe, and he takes some into the canoe, others, who have not received burial, drives away from the shore. Only a golden branch plucked in the grove of Persephone opens the way for a living person to the kingdom of death. Showing Charon the golden branch, Sibylla forced him to transport Aeneas.

So, according to one legend, Charon was chained for a year because he transported Hercules, Pirithous and Theseus through Acheron, who forcibly forced him to transport them to Hades (Virgil, Aeneid, VI 201-211, 385-397, 403- 416). In Etruscan paintings, Charon is depicted as an old man with a curved nose, sometimes with wings and bird-like legs, and usually with a large hammer. As a representative of the underworld, Charon later turned into a demon of death: in this sense, he passed, under the names of Charos and Charontas, to modern Greeks, who present him either in the form of a black bird descending on his victim, or in the form of a horseman pursuing air crowd of the dead. As for the origin of the word Charon, some authors, led by Diodorus Siculus, consider it borrowed from the Egyptians, others bring the word Charon closer to the Greek adjective χαροπός (having fiery eyes).

2. The Greek historiographer from Lampsak, belonged to the predecessors of Herodotus, the so-called logorifs, from which only fragments have come down to us. Of the numerous works attributed to him by the Byzantine encyclopedist Svyda, only "Περςικα" in two books and "Ωροι Ααμψακηών" in four books, that is, the chronicle of the city of Lampsak, can be considered authentic.