« October 23, 2010 | Main | October 29, 2010 »
October 27, 2010
Dante's Charon: Crossings.
The Ferryman Charon. Gustave Doré's illustration to Dante's Inferno. Plate IX: Canto III:
And lo! towards us coming in a boat
An old man, hoary with the hair of eld,
Crying: 'Woe unto you, ye souls depraved!'
In Greek mythology, non-lawyer Charon took souls to Hades--the entrance to the underworld. He did, however, have a standard fee agreement. Supernatural Charon ferried the newly dead across the river Acheron other if they had an obolus (a silver coin worth a sixth of a drachma) to pay for the ride. If you couldn't pay him, you had to wander the shores for a period of one hundred years.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)