Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
---|---|---|
"Charon" | Greek | 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. Greek |
Demon name "Charun" | Etruscan | The Etruscan demon of death who torments the souls of the deceased in the underworld and guards its entrance to the underworld. Similar to the Greek Charon, is portrayed with the nose of a vulture, pointed ears, winged, holding a hammer, with which he finished off his victims. |
Hero name "Cocytus" | Greek | Meaning river of wailing or lamentation, was the river in the underworld on the banks of which the dead who could not pay Charon wandered, according to most accounts, for one hundred years. It flowed into the river Acheron, across which lay Hades, the mythological abode of the dead. Greek |
God name "Pluto" | Roman | God of the underworld. Derived from the Greek model of HADES, he abducted the daughter of CERES, PROSERPINA, to reign as his queen. The three-headed dog Cerberus was set to guard the gate of Hades and through the kingdom flowed the two rivers of death, the Cocytus and the Acheron which could be crossed only by the ferryman Charon. According to Roman tradition, the entrance to the underworld was at Avernus in Rome where the Christian church of St. Maria del Inferno was built.See also HADES.... |
"Psychopomp" | Greek | A conductor of souls; applied to Charon, Apollo, and especially to Hermes, who was the conductor of souls to Hades or the underworld and back again, an office åśśigned by Christians to Jesus Christ after his resurrection. Greek |