CHARON, in Greek mythology, the son of Erebus and Nyx (Night). It was his duty to ferry over the Styx (or Acheron) those souls of the deceased who had duly received the rites of burial, in payment for which service he received an obol, which was placed in the mouth of the corpse. He is probably a product of popular belief, not mentioned in Homer or Hesiod. He is repre sented as a morose and grisly old man. In Etruscan he is called Charun, and appears as a death-demon, armed with a hammer. Finally he came to be regarded as the image of death and the world below. As such he survives in the Charos or Charontas of the modern Greeks.
See the classical dictionaries, especially Roscher's Lexikon, s.v.