Charon

, a Theban, who received into his house Pelopidas and his friends, when they delivered Thebes from tyranny, . Plutarch , Pelopidas .――An historian of Lampsacus, son of Pytheus, who wrote two books on Persia, besides other treatises, B.C. 479.――An historian of Naucratis, who wrote a history of his country and of Egypt.――A Cart hag in i an writer, . ――A god of hell, son of Erebus and Nox, who conducted the souls of the dead in a boat over the rivers Styx and Acheron to the infernal regions, for an obolus. Such as had not been honoured with a funeral were not permitted to enter his boat, without previously wandering on the shore for 100 years. If any living person presented himself to cro the Stygian lake, he could not be admitted before he showed Charon a golden bough, which he had received from the Sibyl, and Charon was imprisoned for one year, because he had ferried over, against his own will, Hercules, without this pa port. Charon is represented as an old robust man, with a hideous countenance, long white beard, and piercing eyes. His garment is ragged and filthy, and his forehead is covered with wrinkles. As all the dead were obliged to pay a small piece of money for their admi ion, it was always usual, among the ancients, to place under the tongue of the deceased a piece of money for Charon. This fable of Charon and his boat is borrowed from the Egyptians, whose dead were carried acro a lake, where sentence was pa ed on them, and according to their good or bad actions, they were honoured with a splendid burial, or left unnoticed in the open air. See: A cher us i a . Diodorus , bk. 1 .— Seneca , Hercules Furens , li. 765 .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 6 , li. 298 , .