Charon, Greek - the son of the god of eternal darkness Erebus and the goddess of the night Nikta, the carrier of the dead to the afterlife.

With such a gloomy origin and occupation, it is not surprising that Charon was a rude and grumpy old man. He was engaged in transportation across the River Styx or, and only to the afterlife, but not in the opposite direction. Charon transported only the souls of the dead, buried according to all the rules; the souls of the unburied were doomed to wander forever along the banks of the afterlife rivers or, according to less strict ideas, for at least a hundred years. For transportation, which was one of the few living things that ended up in the afterlife, Charon worked in chains for a whole year on the orders of Hades. Charon demanded a reward for delivering the souls of the dead to Hades. Therefore, the Greeks placed a coin (one obol) under the tongue of the dead. Why Charon needed money in the afterlife - no one knew. In any case, everyone notes the dirty and ragged appearance of this strange god (and Charon really was a god), his ragged, uncut beard. The custom of providing the dead with money for the journey persisted in the Greco-Roman world long after the victory of Christianity and penetrated into the funeral customs of other peoples.

Ancient artists usually depicted Charon on funerary reliefs and vases, for example, in the Athenian cemetery of Kerameikos and other burial sites. Perhaps Charon is also depicted in a large rock relief near the former Antioch, present-day Antakya in southern Turkey.

Charon, as the carrier of the dead, is also present in Michelangelo’s famous “Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican (see fragment above).

In V. A. Zhukovsky’s poem “Ceres’s Complaint”:
“Charon’s boat is forever sailing,
But he only takes shadows.”

In cases where the river blocked the entrance to afterworld, the soul of the deceased could cross its waters in several ways: by swimming, crossing on a canoe, crossing a bridge, crossing with the help of an animal, or on the shoulders of a deity. It seems that the oldest way to cross a real and not too deep river was to ford it. In this case, it is most likely that children, sick and weak young and strong men carried on themselves so that they would not be carried away by the current. Perhaps this ancient method of crossing formed the basis of the saga of Thor, who carried Orvandill the Bold across the “noisy waters.” This plot was later reworked in the Christian spirit and became known as the story of St. Christopher, i.e. the bearer of Christ. Briefly this story is this.

A giant named Oferush was engaged in carrying wanderers on himself through a stormy and swift stream, “in the depths of which everyone who wanted to drown drowned.” cross to the other side." One day, at the request of the child-Christ, he began to carry him on his shoulders through a seething stream and felt an incredible weight on his shoulders. Turning to the child, the giant asked in fear why it was so hard for him, as if he had lifted a whole world. “You raised the one who created the world!” the child answered him. “Western peoples represent St. Christopher as a giant with a terrible face and the same red hair that Thor had... Eastern legends give St. Christopher with a dog's head, with which he was depicted on ancient icons." (1) However, the mention of the stream in which everyone who entered it drowned, and the carrier through the stream, transparently hint at the river leading to the afterlife, which no one alive cannot swim across, and not one of the dead can overcome, in order to return to the living, both the ferryman and the guardian of this river, carrying souls to the other side.

It was imagined that the river, bridge or entrance to the afterlife was guarded, and the guards were either anthropomorphic creatures or animals. In Nganasan mythology, the souls of the dead are transported independently - by swimming. And no one guards the approaches to the village of the dead. The Orochi made a coffin from an old boat, and the Khanty buried their dead in a boat sawn crosswise: one part served as a coffin, the other as a lid. The image of a man sitting in a fishing boat without oars meant being sent to the lower world. It is interesting that in Manchu mythology the spirit Dokhoolo age (“lame brother”), one-eyed and crooked-nosed, on half a boat ferries the souls of the dead across the river to the kingdom of the dead, rowing with half an oar. This deterioration of the body and the half-heartedness of the craft indicate that the carrier himself was a dead man. Perhaps Manchu mythology retained ancient performance about the carrier himself as if he were dead.

In other mythological systems, this role is played by a person without external signs involvement in the other world, except perhaps the slovenly and senile appearance of Charon, or the head turned backwards of the Egyptian ferryman, make it possible to make such an assumption. However, in the mythological representations of the Nganasans, Orochs and Khanty, guards do not appear the afterlife. The Evenks allow the soul of the deceased to enter the afterlife buni depended on his mistress: on her orders, one of the dead got into a birch bark boat and sailed to the opposite shore to pick up the soul and transport it to buni. No special carrier, no guard. But in the mythological ideas of the Evenks, the river connecting all three worlds had an owner, its owner and guardian - kalir. a giant moose with antlers and a fish tail, although it did not play any role in the crossing to the afterlife.

In the mythological ideas of other peoples, “specialization” is already noticeable: the motive of owning a boat indicates that the image of a carrier to the afterlife was based on the idea of ​​​​real-life people, whose job was to transport people across the river. So the “afterlife” boat had an owner, and when people learned to build bridges, the idea of ​​an owner and guardian of the bridge arose. It is possible that it arose from the fact that initially, perhaps, a fee similar to that charged for transportation was charged for crossing the bridge.

Among the Mansi, such a carrier was considered to be the god of the underworld himself - Kul-Otyr, from touching whose black fur coat a person fell ill and died. In Sumerian-Akkadian mythology there was an idea of ​​the unburied souls of the dead returning to earth and bringing disaster. The souls of the buried dead were transported across the “river that separates from people” and is the border between the world of the living and world of the dead. Souls were transported across the river on the boat of the carrier of the underworld Ur-Shanabi or the demon Khumut-Tabala. The carrier Ur-Shanabi was considered the consort of the goddess Nanshe, whose name spelling included the sign for fish. She was revered as a fortuneteller and interpreter of dreams. The Sumerians buried the deceased with a certain amount of silver, “which he had to give as payment for transportation to “the man on the other side of the river”.” (4)

In Finnish mythology, the role of the carrier across the river was played by the maiden Manala, in the German-Scandinavian maiden Modgug was the guardian of the bridge, in Iranian mythology - a beautiful girl with two dogs, met the deceased at the bridge and transferred him to the other side. (Videvdat, 19, 30). In later Zoroastrian texts, Sraosha, armed with a spear, mace and battle ax, met the soul of the deceased at the Chinvat bridge leading to the afterlife, and transferred it for a bribe of baked bread.

In Egyptian mythology, by sailing on a boat, the deceased pharaoh could reach the eastern part of the sky. “The deceased had to be transported by a special carrier, who in the Pyramid Texts is called “the one looking behind him.”(5) He was also called the “carrier of the reed field” - sekhet iaru, the desired place of residence of the gods in the east. However, the ancient Egyptians also had an idea about the afterlife, located in the west. The goddess of the west, that is, the kingdom of the dead, was Amentet. She extended her hands to the dead, welcoming them to the land of the dead. Almost the same name - Aminon - was borne by the guard of the bridge leading to the land of the dead in Ossetian mythology. She asked the dead what they did good and bad during their lifetime, and according to the answer, she showed them the path to hell or heaven.

Finally, in Greek mythology Charon was the carrier of souls across the river and its guardian: “The waters of the underground rivers are guarded by a terrible carrier - / Gloomy and formidable Charon. A scraggly gray beard / is overgrown all over his face - only his eyes burn motionlessly, / The cloak on his shoulders is tied in a knot and hangs ugly, / He drives the boat with a pole and steers the sails himself, / He transports the dead on a fragile canoe across a dark stream. / God is already old, but he retains vigorous strength even in old age.” (6) The carrier was to be paid, so a coin was placed in the dead man’s mouth. In Russian funeral rituals, money was thrown into the grave to pay for transportation. The Vepsians also did the same, throwing copper money into the grave, however, according to most informants, this was done to buy a place for the deceased. The Khanty threw several coins into the water, to the deities - the owners of the cape, noticeable rocks, stones past which they swam.

Afterworld. Myths about the afterlife Petrukhin Vladimir Yakovlevich

Carrier of souls

Carrier of souls

The afterlife is located, as a rule, behind a body of water - 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 Inferno. IN Greek myth and in a ritual quite rationalized by the laws of the ancient polis (which also regulated the funeral rite), Charon was supposed to pay for transportation a coin (obol), which was placed under the tongue of the dead man. This custom has spread among many peoples of the world. Hermes, the messenger of the gods, who knew all the paths, was considered the guide of souls to the border of Hades.

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

...to the limits of fog and decay;

Past the Lefkada rock and the rushing waters of the ocean,

Past the gates of Helios, past the borders where the gods are

Dreams dwell, winnowed shadows on Asphodilon

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

Anyone who found himself at the 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 across the Styx only those who were honored with proper burial rites.

The Styx borders Hades from the west, receiving the waters of the tributaries of the Acheron, Phlegethon, Cocytus, Aornitus and Lethe. The Styx, which means “hateful,” is a stream in Arcadia whose waters were considered deadly poisonous; Only later mythographers began to “place” him in Hades. Acheron - “stream of sadness” and Cocytus - “wailing” - these names are intended to show the ugliness of death. Lethe means "forgetfulness." Phlegethon - "blazing" - refers to the custom of cremation or the belief that sinners burn in lava flows.

Only the most powerful heroes - Hercules and Theseus - could force Charon to transport them alive to Hades. Aeneas was able to get there thanks to the fact that the prophetess Sibylla showed Charon a golden branch from the garden of the goddess of the underworld Persephone. She threw a lozenge containing sleeping pills to another guardian of the underworld, the monstrous dog Cerberus (Kerberus). Each deceased had to have a honey cake with him in order to distract this dog with three heads and a snake tail, whose entire body was also strewn with snakes. Cerberus, however, guarded not so much the entrance to the other world as the exit: he made sure that souls did not return to the world of the living.

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

In the Saga of the Volsungs, the hero Sigmund, a descendant of Odin, takes the corpse of Sinfjötli’s son and wanders with him to God knows where until he comes to a 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 Sinfjötli, the shuttle immediately disappeared. It was, of course, Odin who took his descendant to Valhalla.

In ours, we have already mentioned a gloomy figure, which is necessary for the disincarnate 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 River-Smorodinka, the Greek Styx and Acheron, etc.). In this regard, it is clear that the creature that leads souls across this line was often perceived in the image boatman-carrier .
This river - River of Oblivion, and the passage through it means not only the movement of the soul from the world of the living to the world of the dead, but also the severance of any connection, memory, attachment to the Overworld. That is why it is the River of No Return, because there is no longer any motive to cross it. It is clear that the function Carrier, which carries out this severance of connections, is critically important for the process of disembodiment. Without its 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 man.

As a manifestation, the Carrier of Souls is a necessary participant in the drama of death. It should be noted that the Carrier is one-sided engine - it only takes souls to the kingdom of the dead, but never (except for rare mythological incidents) does not return them back.

The ancient Sumerians were the first to discover the need for this character, for whom the function of such a guide was performed by Namtarru- 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 the son of Ereshkigal, that is, he occupied a fairly high position in the hierarchy of the gods.

The Egyptians also widely used the image of the ferryman in stories about the posthumous journey of the soul. This function, among others, was attributed to to 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 in other world Slavic legends. In addition, it is not without reason that God of the Open Gates was also depicted in the guise of Winged Dog. The appearance of the Watchdog of the worlds is one of the most ancient experiences of encountering 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. The Guardian adopted this function from the Greeks Cerberus.

Among the Etruscans, at first the role of Carrier was performed by Turmas(Greek Hermes, who retained this function of psychopomp - 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 the ideas of the Psychopomp (the “guide” of souls, responsible for the souls leaving the manifest world, the importance of which we have already discussed) and the Carrier, who performs the function of a guardian - the Gatekeeper. Hermes Psychopomp in classical mythology seated his charges in Charon's boat. It is interesting that Hermes the Psychopomp was often depicted in the image of Cynocephalus - the dog-headed one.

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 - the Miniad.
Charon transports the dead along the waters of underground rivers, receiving payment for this in one obol (according to funeral rites, it is 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 this day. Charon transports only those dead whose bones found peace in the grave. In Virgil, Charon is an old man covered in dirt, with a scraggly gray beard, fiery eyes, and dirty clothes. Guarding the waters of the Acheron (or Styx) River, he uses a pole to transport shadows on a shuttle, and he takes some into the shuttle, and drives others away from the shore who did not receive burial. According to legend, Charon was chained for a year for transporting Hercules across Acheron. As a representative of the underworld, Charon later came to be considered the demon of death: in this meaning he passed, under the names Charos and Charontas, to the modern Greeks, who represent him either in the form of a black bird descending on his victim, or in the form of a horseman 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 ( Gjoll), for example, Hermod meets with the giantess Modgud, who allows him to go to Hel, and, apparently, Odin (Harbard) refuses to transport Thor through the same river. It is interesting that in the last episode the Great Ace himself takes on 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 Transport of Souls found development and continuation. Procopius of Caesarea, a historian of the Gothic War (6th century), gives a story about how the souls of the dead travel 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 the heavy duty of transporting the souls of the dead. Transporters wait every night in their huts for a conventional knock on the door and the voices of invisible beings calling them to work. Then people immediately get out of bed, prompted by an unknown force, go down to the shore and find boats there, not their own, but strangers, completely ready to set off and empty. The carriers get into the boats, take the oars and see that, from the weight of numerous invisible passengers, the boats sit deep in the water, a finger from the side. An hour later they reach the opposite shore, and yet on their boats they would hardly have been able to cover this path in a whole day. Having reached the island, the boats unload and become so light that only the keel touches the water. The carriers do not see anyone on their way or on the shore, but they hear a voice that calls the name, rank and relationship of each arrival, and if it is a woman, then the rank of her husband ».

Almost all traditions have a similar description of the underworld. The only difference is the details and mainly the names. For example, in ancient greek mythology The river through which the souls of the dead are melted is called Styx. According to legends, it is located in the kingdom of Hades, the god of the kingdom of the dead. The very name of the river is translated as a monster, or in other words, the personification of real horror. The Styx is of great importance in the underworld and is the main crossing point between the two worlds.

Styx is the main transition point between the two worlds

According to myths ancient Greece, the river Styx was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She earned her respect and unshakable authority after the battle on the side of Zeus. After all, it was her participation that positively influenced the outcome of the war. Since then, the gods of Olympus have confirmed the inviolability of their oath with her name. If the oath was nevertheless broken, then the Olympian had to lie lifeless for nine earthly years, and after that not dare to approach Olympus for the same amount of time. Only after this time had the god who broke his oath had the right to return. In addition, Zeus used the waters of Styx to test the honesty of his allies. He forced him to drink from it, and if suddenly the Olympian was a deceiver, then he immediately lost his voice and froze for a year. The waters of this river were considered deadly poisonous.

According to legend, Styx circles the kingdom of the dead - Hades - nine times and is under the protection of Charon. It is this strict old man who melts the souls/shadows of the dead on his boat. He takes them to the other side of the river, from where they never return. However, he does this for a fee. In order for Charon to accept the shadow of his boat, the ancient Greeks placed a small obol coin in the deceased’s mouth. Perhaps this is where the tradition of placing money and other things valuable during life came from when burying a body. Meanwhile, not everyone can get to the other side. If loved ones do not bury the body as expected, the gloomy Charon does not allow the soul into the boat. He pushes her away, dooming her to eternal wanderings.

If loved ones do not bury the body as expected, the soul will have to wander

When the boat with souls nevertheless reached the opposite shore, they were met by the hellish dog - Cerberus.

Mavroneri River

Often the image of the River Styx can be found in art. The image of a river ferryman was used by Virgil, Seneca, and Lucian. Dante in The Divine Comedy used the River Styx in the fifth circle of hell. However, there it is not water, but a dirty swamp, in which those who experienced a lot of anger during their lives wage an eternal fight on the bodies of those who lived their whole lives in boredom. Among the most famous paintings with the ferryman of souls is Michelangelo's "Day" doomsday" Sinners are taken to the kingdom of Hades on it.

Dante used the River Styx in the fifth circle of hell in The Divine Comedy

It is also interesting that in our time, the Mavroneri, also known as the “black river,” is considered an analogue of the river that flowed from the underworld. It is located in the mountainous part of the Peloponnese Peninsula, in Greece. By the way, scientists suggest that it was this water that poisoned Alexander the Great. They base this conclusion on the fact that Mavroneri, like Styx, contains microorganisms that are deadly poisonous to humans, poisoning with which is accompanied by symptoms from which the great commander suffered before his death.

According to scientists, Macedonian was poisoned by the water Styx

There are references to the deadly waters of the Styx and its guardian in other cultures. For example, the Egyptians attributed the duties of a carrier to Anubis, the Lord of the Duat, and among the Etruscans Turmas acted as a carrier for some time, and then Haru. In Christianity, the Angel Gabriel helps to overcome the border of life and death.