Charon

A son of Erebos, the aged and dirty ferryman in the lower world, who conveyed in his boat the shades of the dead — though only of those whose bodies were buried — across the rivers of the lower world. For this service he was paid by each shade with an obolus or danace, which coin was placed in the mouth of every dead body previous to its burial. This notion of Charon seems to be of late origin, for it does not occur in any of the early poets of Greece.

The Etruscan chthonic demon Charun is modeled after him. In modern folklore he appears as Charos or Charontes, represented as a black bird or horseman.

KHARON (Charon) was the Ferryman of the Dead, an underworld daimon (spirit) in the service of King Haides.Hermes Psykhopompos (Guide of the Dead) gathered the shades of the dead from the upper world and led them down to the shores of the Akherousian (Acherusian) mere in the underworld where Kharon transported them across the waters to Haides in his skiff. His fee was a single obolos coin which was placed in the mouth of a corpse upon burial. Those who had not received proper burial were unable to pay the fee and were left to wander the earthly side of the Akheron (Acheron), haunting the world as ghosts.