« Saturday: Pre-Depression Era Moxie Music. | Main | Eric O'Neill: Hard times jeopardize security clearances. »
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 October 27, 2010 11:59 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)