shade

Charon’s obols were coins supposedly used by the ancient Greeks for funerary purposes. More precisely, the belief is that these coins were used by the shades (roughly equivalent to the concept of ‘spirit’ or ‘ghost’) of the dead to pay for their journey across the River Styx or Acheron into the Underworld. In Greek mythology, the ferryman of the dead is a figure called Charon, who was the son of Nyx and Erebos. Thus, according to literary sources, if a dead person was to be buried, a coin would be placed in his / her mouth prior to the burial. Nevertheless, the archaeological evidence seems to paint a different picture compared to the written sources. The Ferryman of Hades In