I would strongly recommend that players try to avoid using Charon shops along the way as early as possible as long as it doesn’t impede the player’s ability to complete a run successfully.Īt the end of the day, completing a run is going to be the most important part to a player as it will help a player unlock more rare Artifacts (as Bosses on new Heats are guaranteed to drop a rare Artifact), so if ever you think you are struggling, go to Charon. Whether the deceased during this period simply waited upon the banks of the Acheron, or whether someone else operate the skiff of Charon, is not elaborated upon in those ancient sources.Charon is a bit of a hit and miss kind of NPC in Hades and quite frankly is much better in the early game to visit than in the late game.Įssentially, Charon is the in game shop for players, helping them collect Boons or upgrades along the way, though in the late game, this is going to become a much smaller priority as players will want to save up all of their Charon’s Obol in order to buy the rarest Artifacts at the end of the escape. Later writers, particularly in the Roman period would tell that Charon was punished every time he let the living into the Underworld, and in particular for allow Heracles into the realm of Hades, Charon was said to have been punished by a year in chains. Heracles did this either by wrestling the strong Charon into submission, or else simply by intimidating the minor god by frowning at him. Heracles though did not seek to charm or pay Charon for his passage across the Acheron, and instead Heracles forced the ferryman to transport him. The Trojan hero Aeneas, whilst in the company of the Cumaean Sibyl, and as he sought his father, produced the magical Golden Bough, to induce Charon to allow him and the Sibyl to pass across. Orpheus would charm Charon with his music as he sought Eurydice, although Charon would only allow Orpheus a single passage based on the melody played.
Theseus though was a cunning figure, much like Odysseus, and so the Greek hero may have duped Charon into transporting the pair for no payment.Ĭertainly other figures managed to make Charon transport them without payment. It is also generally assumed that Theseus and Pirithouspaid Charon for the crossing of the Acheron when they sought to abduct Persephone from the Underworld. It is often said that Charon was the ferryman across the River Styx, although this was a later alteration of the Charon myth, for of course the Styx was the most famous of the rivers found in the Greek underworld. The deceased could then stand in front of the Judges of the Dead, who would pass judgement on how they would spend eternity. Those that could pay the ferryman of the dead, would be safely transported across the Acheron into the heart of Hades’ realm. Those that could not pay Charon’s fee would wander aimlessly along the banks of the Acheron for 100 years, with their spirits found as ghosts upon the earth, perhaps haunting those who had not undertaken the expected funeral rites. Neither coin was particularly valuable, but in order for the deceased to have in their possession such a coin, meant that the deceased had been subjected to the proper funeral rites for the obolos would have been placed in the mouth of the newly deceased. Here the skiff of Charon would await, with Charon taking the deceased across the river, as long as they could pay the fare.Ĭharon’ fee was said to be coinage, either an obolos or Persian denace. The idea was that Hermes, or another Psychopomp, would escort the newly deceased to the banks of the River Acheron, the River of Pain.
As with most of the children of Nyx and Erebus, Charon was said to reside within the Greek Underworld, and his role for eternity was to act as ferryman of the dead.
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