Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/132

 prophylactic charm, which caused the classical association of the custom with Charon; and, once disembarrassed of this association, the popular conception of Charon in antiquity is more easily studied.

The literary presentation of him in the guise of a ferryman only is a comparatively late development. The early poets know nothing of him whatever in any character. The first literary reference to him was apparently in the Minyad, an epic poem of doubtful but not early date, of which two lines referring to the descent of Theseus and Pirithous to the lower world ran thus: 'There verily the ship whereon the dead embark, even that which the aged Charon as ferryman doth guide, they found not at its anchorage .' These are the lines by which Pausanias believed that Polygnotus had been guided when painting the figure of Charon in his famous representation of the nether world at Delphi. Thenceforth this was the one orthodox presentation of Charon in both literature and art. Euripides and Aristophanes in numerous passages both alike conform to it, and the painters of funeral vases were equally faithful.

But there is evidence to show that this was not the popular conception of Charon, or at any rate not the whole of it. Phrases occur (and were probably current in classical times) which seem to imply a larger conception of Charon's office and functions. The 'door of Charon' ([Greek: Charôneios thyra] or [Greek: Charôneion] ) was that by which condemned prisoners were led out to execution. The 'staircase of Charon' ([Greek: Charôneios klimax] ) was that by which ghosts in drama ascended to the stage, as if they were appearing from the nether world. To Charon likewise were ascribed in popular parlance many caverns of forbidding aspect, particularly those that were filled with mephitic vapours—[Greek: Charôneia barathra , spêlaia, antra ]. Finally [Greek: Charônitai] is Plutarch's rendering of the Latin Orcini, the sobriquet given to the low persons whom Caesar brought up into the Senate. These uses point to a popular conception of Charon larger than classical art and literature reveal, and justify Suidas' simple identification of Charon with death[10]., s.v.]