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The meaning of the word charon. The meaning of the word charon in the directory of characters and cult objects of Greek mythology Who ferries the styx across the river

Styx, the mythical river of the dead, is known not only for being a link between the world of the living and the otherworldly kingdom of Hades. A large number of myths and legends are associated with it. For example, Achilles received his strength when he was dipped into the Styx, Hephaestus came to its waters to temper Daphne's sword, and some heroes swam across it while still alive. What is the River Styx and what power do its waters have?

Styx in Greek mythology

Ancient Greek myths tell us that the Styx is eldest daughter Oceana and Tethys. Her husband was the titan Pallant, from whom she bore several children. Also, according to one version, Persephone was her daughter, born of Zeus.

Styx took the side of Zeus in his battle with Kronos, taking an active part in it. She made a significant contribution to the victory over the titans, for which she received great honor and respect. Since then, the river Styx has become a symbol of a sacred oath, breaking which was considered unacceptable even for a god. Those who violated the oath by the waters of the Styx were severely punished. However, Zeus was always supportive of Styx and her children because they always helped him and were faithful.

River in the realm of the dead

What is the River Styx? The mythology of the ancient Greeks says that there are places on earth where the sun never looks, so eternal darkness and gloom reign there. It is there that the entrance to the possessions of Hades - Tartarus is located. Several rivers flow in the realm of the dead, but the Styx is the darkest and most terrible of them. The river of the dead goes around the kingdom of Hades nine times, and its waters are black and muddy.

According to legend, Styx originates far in the west, where night reigns. Here is the magnificent palace of the goddess, the silver columns of which, which are streams of a spring falling from a height, reach the heavens. These places are uninhabited, and even the gods do not visit here. An exception can be considered Iris, who occasionally arrived for the sacred water of Styx, with the help of which the gods made their oaths. Here, the waters of the source go underground, where horror and death live.

There is one legend that says that once the Styx flowed in the northern part of Arcadia, and Alexander the Great was poisoned with water taken from this river. Dante Alighieri in his Divine Comedy”used the image of a river in one of the circles of hell, only there it appeared as a dirty swamp in which sinners would get bogged down forever.

Carrier Charon

The crossing to the kingdom of the dead is guarded by Charon, a ferryman on the river Styx. In myths Ancient Greece he is depicted as a gloomy old man with a long and unkempt beard, and his attire is dirty and shabby. Charon's duties include transporting the souls of the dead across the River Styx, for which he has a small boat and a single oar at his disposal.

It was believed that Charon rejected the souls of those people whose bodies were not properly buried, so they were forced to wander forever in search of peace. Also in antiquity, there was a belief that it was necessary to pay the ferryman Charon to cross the Styx. To do this, during burial, the relatives of the deceased put a small coin in his mouth, which he could use in the underworld of Hades. By the way, a similar tradition existed among many peoples of the world. The custom of putting money in a coffin is observed by some people to this day.

Analogues of Styx and Charon

The River Styx and its guardian Charon are quite characteristic images describing the transition of the soul to another world. Having studied mythology different peoples, you can see similar examples in other beliefs. For example, among the ancient Egyptians, the duties of an escort to the afterlife, which also had its own river of the dead, were performed by the dog-headed Anubis, who brought the soul of the deceased to the throne of Osiris. Anubis looks very similar to gray wolf, which, according to beliefs Slavic peoples, also accompanied souls to another world.

IN ancient world there were many legends and traditions, sometimes they could not correspond or even contradict each other. For example, according to some myths, the ferryman Charon transported souls not through the Styx, but through another river - Acheron. There are also other versions regarding its origin and further role in mythology. Nevertheless, the River Styx today is the personification of the transition of souls from our world to the afterlife.

Depicted as a gloomy old man in rags. Charon transports the dead along the waters of underground rivers, receiving for this a payment (navlon) in one obol (according to funeral rite found under the tongue of the dead). It transports only those dead whose bones have found peace in the grave. Only a golden branch, plucked from the grove of Persephone, opens the way for a living person to the kingdom of death. Under no circumstances will it be returned.

Name etymology

The name Charon is often explained as being derived from χάρων ( Charon), the poetic form of the word χαρωπός ( charopos), which can be translated as "having a sharp eye." He is also referred to as having fierce, flashing or feverish eyes, or eyes of a bluish-gray color. The word can also be a euphemism for death. Blinking eyes may signify Charon's anger or irascibility, which is often mentioned in the literature, but the etymology is not fully determined. The ancient historian Diodorus Siculus believed that the boatman and his name came from Egypt.

In art

In the first century BC, the Roman poet Virgil described Charon during the descent of Aeneas into the underworld (Aeneid, Book 6), after the Sibyl from Kuma sent the hero for a golden branch that would allow him to return to the world of the living:

Gloomy and dirty Charon. Ragged gray beard
The whole face is overgrown - only the eyes burn motionless,
The cloak is knotted at the shoulders and hangs ugly.
He drives the boat with a pole and rules the sails himself,
The dead are transported on a fragile boat through a dark stream.
God is already old, but he keeps a vigorous strength even in old age.

original text(lat.)

Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat
terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento
canities inculta iacet; stant lumina flame,
sordidus ex umeris nodo dependet amictus.
Ipse ratem conto subigit, velisque ministrat,
et ferruginea subvectat corpora cymba,
iam senior, sed cruda deo viridisque senectus.

Other Roman authors also describe Charon, among them Seneca in his tragedy Hercules Furens, where Charon is described in lines 762-777 as an old man, dressed in a dirty robe, with sunken cheeks and an untidy beard, a cruel ferryman who steers his ship with a long pole. When the ferryman stops Hercules, preventing him from passing to the other side, Greek hero by force proves his right of passage, defeating Charon with the help of his own pole.

In the second century AD, in Lucian's Conversations in the Realm of the Dead, Charon appeared, mainly in parts 4 and 10 ( "Hermes and Charon" And "Charon and Hermes") .

Mentioned in the poem by Prodicus from Phocaea "Miniad". Depicted in a painting by Polygnotus at Delphi, a ferryman across Acheron. Actor comedy by Aristophanes "The Frogs".

Underground geography

In most cases, including descriptions in Pausanias and, later, in Dante, Charon is located near the river Acheron. Ancient Greek sources such as Pindar, Aeschylus, Euripides, Plato and Callimachus also place Charon on Acheron in their writings. Roman poets, including Propertius, Publius, and Statius, name the river Styx, possibly following Virgil's description of the underworld in the Aeneid, where it was associated with both rivers.

In astronomy

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Notes

Myths of the peoples of the world. M., 1991-92. In 2 vols. T.2. S.584
Euripides. Alcestis 254; Virgil. Aeneid VI 298-304
Lyubker F. Real Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. M., 2001. In 3 volumes. T.1. p.322
Liddell and Scott A Greek-English Lexicon(Oxford: Clarendon Press 1843, 1985 printing), entries on χαροπός and χάρων, pp. 1980-1981; Brill's New Pauly(Leiden and Boston 2003), vol. 3, entry on "Charon," pp. 202-203.
Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, "Reading" Greek Death(Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 359 and p. 390
Grinsell, L. V. (1957). "The Ferryman and His Fee: A Study in Ethnology, Archeology, and Tradition". Folklore 68 (1): 257–269 .
Virgil, Aeneid 6.298-301, translated into English by John Dryden, into Russian by Sergey Osherov (English lines 413-417.)
See Ronnie H. Terpening . Charon and the Crossing: Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Transformations of a Myth(Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1985 and London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1985), pp. 97-98.
For an analysis of these dialogues, see Terpening, pp. 107-116.)
For an analysis of Dante's description of Charon and his other appearances in literature from ancient times to the 17th century in Italy, see Turpenin, Ron, Charon and the Crossing.
Pausanias. Description of Hellas X 28, 2; Miniade, French 1 Bernabe
Pausanias. Description of Hellas X 28, 1
See for collected source passages with work and line annotations, as well as images from vase paintings .

15. Oleg Igorin Two banks of Charon

An excerpt characterizing Charon (mythology)

I gradually came to my senses and more and more I felt how my warlike spirit was returning to me. There was nothing to lose anyway ... And no matter how hard I tried to be pleasant, Karaff did not care. He longed for only one thing - to get answers to his questions. The rest didn't matter. Except, perhaps, for one thing - my complete submission to him ... But he knew perfectly well that this would not happen. So I didn't have to be polite or even bearable with him. And to be honest, it gave me sincere pleasure ...
– Are you not interested in what happened to your father, Isidora? You love him so much!
"Love!!!"... He did not say - "loved"! So, for now, the father was still alive! I tried not to show my joy, and as calmly as possible said:
– What difference does it make, Holiness, you will kill him anyway! And it will happen sooner or later - it doesn't matter anymore ...
– Oh, how wrong you are, dear Isidora! great importance! You have no idea how big...
Caraffa was already “Caraffa” again, that is, a sophisticated tormentor who, in order to achieve his goal, was ready with great pleasure to observe the most brutal human tortures, the most terrible pain of others ...
And now, with the interest of a gambler, he tried to find at least some open gap in my mind, tormented by pain, and whether it was fear, anger, or even love, it didn’t matter to him ... He just wanted to strike, and which one my feelings will open for him the “door” for this - it was already a matter of secondary importance ...
But I did not give in... Apparently, my famous “long-suffering” helped, which amused everyone around since I was still a baby. My father once told me that I was the most patient child that he and my mother had ever seen, and that it was almost impossible to piss me off. When others completely lost patience with something, I still said: “Nothing, everything will be fine, everything will work out, you just have to wait a bit” ... I believed in the positive even when no one else believed in it . But it was precisely this trait of mine that Caraff, even with all his excellent knowledge, apparently still did not know. Therefore, he was infuriated by my incomprehensible calmness, which, in fact, was not any kind of calmness, but was only my inexhaustible long-suffering. I simply could not allow that, while doing us such inhuman evil, he also enjoyed our deep, sincere pain.
Although, to be completely frank, I still could not explain some of the actions in Caraffa's behavior to myself ...
On the one hand, he seemed to be sincerely admired by my unusual “talents”, as if it really had some meaning for him ... And he was always sincerely admired by my “famous” natural beauty, as evidenced by the delight in his eyes, every time we met. And at the same time, for some reason, Karaffa was very disappointed with any flaw, or even the slightest imperfection, which he accidentally discovered in me and was sincerely infuriated by any of my weaknesses or even my slightest mistake, which, from time to time, to me, like to any person, sometimes it even seemed to me that I was reluctantly destroying some non-existent ideal created by him for himself...
If I did not know him so well, I might even be inclined to believe that this incomprehensible and evil person me in his own way and very strange, loved ...
But, as soon as my exhausted brain came to such an absurd conclusion, I immediately reminded myself that it was about Karaffa! And he certainly did not have any pure or sincere feelings inside him! .. And even more so, such as Love. Rather, it was like the feeling of an owner who found an expensive toy for himself, and who wanted to see in it, no more and no less, as soon as his ideal. And if the slightest flaw suddenly appeared in this toy, he was almost immediately ready to throw it straight into the fire...
– Is your soul able to leave your body during life, Isidora? - interrupted my sad thoughts with another unusual question of Karaff.
“Well, of course, Your Holiness! This is the simplest thing that any Vedun can do. Why is it of interest to you?
“Your father uses this to get away from pain ...” Karaffa said thoughtfully. “Therefore, there is no point in torturing him with ordinary torture. But I will find a way to get him to talk, even if it takes a lot longer than I thought. He knows a lot, Isidora. I think even more than you can imagine. He didn't reveal half of it to you!... Wouldn't you like to know the rest?!
– Why, Your Holiness?!.. – trying to hide my joy from what I heard, I said as calmly as possible. “If he didn’t reveal something, then it wasn’t time for me to find out yet. Premature knowledge is very dangerous, Your Holiness - it can both help and kill. So sometimes you need to be very careful to teach someone. I think you must have known this, after all, you studied there for some time, in Meteor?
- Nonsense!!! I am ready for everything! Oh, I've been ready for so long, Isidora! These fools simply do not see that I need only Knowledge, and I can do much more than others! Maybe even more than they are!
Karaffa was terrible in his “DESIRE for what is desired”, and I realized that in order to gain this knowledge, he will sweep away ANY obstacles that come his way ... And whether it will be me or my father, or even baby Anna, but he will get what he wants, he will “knock” him out of us, no matter what, apparently, he has already achieved everything that his insatiable brain set his sights on before, including his current power and visiting Meteora, and, most likely, much, much more, oh what I preferred not to know better, so as not to completely lose hope in victory over him. Caraffa was truly dangerous for humanity!.. His super-crazy "faith" in his "genius" exceeded any usual norms of the highest existing self-conceit and frightened with his peremptory attitude when it came to his "desired", about which he had not the slightest idea but only knew that he wanted it ...
To cool him down a bit, I suddenly began to “melt” right in front of his “holy” gaze, and in a moment completely disappeared ... It was a childish trick of the simplest “breath”, as we called instantaneous movement from one place to another (I think so they called teleportation), but it should have had a “refreshing” effect on Caraffa. And I was not mistaken... When I came back a minute later, his dumbfounded face expressed complete confusion, which, I'm sure, very few managed to see. Unable to bear this funny picture any longer, I laughed heartily.
“We know many tricks, Your Holiness, but they are just tricks. KNOWLEDGE is completely different. This is a weapon, and it is very important in what hands it falls ...
But Caraffa did not listen to me. He was shocked like a small child by what he had just seen, and immediately wanted to know it for himself!.. It was a new, unfamiliar toy that he should have right now!!! Don't hesitate a minute!
But, on the other hand, he was also very smart person, and, despite the thirst for something, he almost always knew how to think. Therefore, literally after a moment, his gaze gradually began to darken, and the widening black eyes stared at me with a silent, but very persistent question, and I saw with satisfaction that he finally began to understand the real meaning shown to him, my little "trick"...

The section is very easy to use. In the proposed field, just enter the desired word, and we will give you a list of its meanings. It should be noted that our site provides data from different sources- encyclopedic, explanatory, derivational dictionaries. Here you can also get acquainted with examples of the use of the word you entered.

The meaning of the word charon

charon in the crossword dictionary

New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova.

Charon

m. An old carrier ferrying the shadows of the dead to Hades through the underground rivers Styx and Acheron (in ancient mythology).

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

Charon

in Greek mythology, the carrier of the dead across the rivers underworld to the gates of Hades; to pay for transportation, a coin was put in the mouth of the deceased.

Mythological dictionary

Charon

(Greek) - the son of Erebus and Nikta, a carrier in the kingdom of the dead, ferrying the souls of the dead in a shuttle through the rivers of the underworld. It was believed that X. took a fee for transportation, so a small coin (obol) was put in the mouth of the deceased.

Charon

V ancient Greek mythology carrier of the dead through the rivers of the underworld to the gates of Hades. To pay for transportation, a coin was placed in the mouth of the deceased.

Wikipedia

Charon (satellite)

Charon(from; also (134340) PlutoI) is a satellite of Pluto discovered in 1978 (in another interpretation, it is a smaller component of a binary planetary system). With the discovery in 2005 of two other satellites - Hydra and Nikta - Charon was also referred to as Pluto I. Named after the character of ancient Greek mythology, Charon, the carrier of the souls of the dead across the river Styx. In July 2015, the American New Horizons probe reached Pluto and Charon for the first time in history and explored them from a flyby trajectory.

Charon

Charon:

Charon - in Greek mythology, the carrier of the souls of the dead across the river Styx to Hades.
Charon is Pluto's largest moon.
Charon of Lampsak (5th century BC) is an ancient Greek historiographer-logographer.

Charon is the browser of the Inferno operating system.
Charon is a Finnish gothic metal band.

Charon (mythology)

Charon in Greek mythology - the carrier of the souls of the dead across the river Styx (according to another version - through Acheron) to Hades. Son of Erebus and Nyukta.

Depicted as a gloomy old man in rags. Charon transports the dead along the waters of underground rivers, receiving for this a payment (navlon) of one obol. It transports only those dead whose bones have found peace in the grave. Only a golden branch plucked in the grove of Persephone opens the way for a living person to the kingdom of death. Under no circumstances will it be returned.

Examples of the use of the word charon in the literature.

This sport also had its own religious touch: the slaves who pulled the dead bodies out of the arena with hooks put on the masks of the transporter of souls in the underworld, Charon.

It's time, apparently, brothers, to move from the Cossack saddle to the canoe Charon.

Thousands of eyes turned to the great gate, which was approached by a man dressed Charon, and in general silence he struck them three times with a hammer, as if calling to death those who were behind them.

But then the prefect gave a sign: immediately the old man came out again, dressed up Charon, the same one that called the gladiators to death, and, with a leisurely tread, passed through the entire arena, in the dead silence that reigned, again struck the door with a hammer three times.

After that, the unfortunate follower Charon for some time he worked as a uniform operator of the Tsaritsyno circus, a seller of a beer stall, a loader in a furniture store and a packer in a sugar-packing shop.

Jacob Silvius, who never reconciled with the rebellious student, forded the Styx in order to save an extra obol, not to give it to the greedy Charon.

For a long time we did not believe that these tragic events are somehow connected with your city - unless the relationship of Bourget with the rest Charon beneficial to both parties?

On Charone people also enjoyed hunting and fishing, and the inhabitants of Montlay and Bourget bought semi-finished meat products and were tormented by moral feelings no more than the inhabitants of the jungle.

Judging by the clash in Bourges, you have nothing to fear - common people Charon will eventually prevail.

Charon (mythology)

Depicted as a gloomy old man in rags. Charon transports the dead along the waters of underground rivers, receiving for this a payment (navlon) in one obol (according to the funeral rite, located under the tongue of the dead). It transports only those dead whose bones have found peace in the grave. Only a golden branch, plucked from the grove of Persephone, opens the way for a living person to the kingdom of death. Under no circumstances will it be returned.

Name etymology

In art

Gloomy and dirty Charon. Ragged gray beard
The whole face is overgrown - only the eyes burn motionless,
The cloak is knotted at the shoulders and hangs ugly.
He drives the boat with a pole and rules the sails himself,
The dead are transported on a fragile boat through a dark stream.
God is already old, but he keeps a vigorous strength even in old age.

original text(lat.)

Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat
terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento
canities inculta iacet; stant lumina flame,
sordidus ex umeris nodo dependet amictus.
Ipse ratem conto subigit, velisque ministrat,
et ferruginea subvectat corpora cymba,
iam senior, sed cruda deo viridisque senectus.

Other Roman authors also describe Charon, among them Seneca in his tragedy Hercules Furens, where Charon is described in lines 762-777 as an old man, dressed in a dirty robe, with retracted cheeks and an untidy beard, a cruel ferryman, steering his ship with a long pole. When the ferryman stops Hercules, preventing him from passing to the other side, the Greek hero proves his right of passage by force, defeating Charon with the help of his own pole.

In the second century AD, in Lucian's Conversations in the Realm of the Dead, Charon appeared, mainly in parts 4 and 10 ( "Hermes and Charon" And "Charon and Hermes") .

Mentioned in the poem by Prodicus from Phocaea "Miniad". Depicted in a painting by Polygnotus at Delphi, a ferryman across Acheron. The protagonist of Aristophanes' comedy "The Frogs".

Underground geography

In astronomy

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Notes

Myths of the peoples of the world. M., 1991-92. In 2 vols. T.2. S.584
Euripides. Alcestis 254; Virgil. Aeneid VI 298-304
Lyubker F. Real Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. M., 2001. In 3 volumes. T.1. p.322
Liddell and Scott A Greek-English Lexicon(Oxford: Clarendon Press 1843, 1985 printing), entries on χαροπός and χάρων, pp. 1980-1981; Brill's New Pauly(Leiden and Boston 2003), vol. 3, entry on "Charon," pp. 202-203.
Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, "Reading" Greek Death(Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 359 and p. 390
Grinsell, L. V. (1957). "The Ferryman and His Fee: A Study in Ethnology, Archeology, and Tradition". Folklore 68 (1): 257–269 .
Virgil, Aeneid 6.298-301, translated into English by John Dryden, into Russian by Sergey Osherov (English lines 413-417.)
See Ronnie H. Terpening . Charon and the Crossing: Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Transformations of a Myth(Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1985 and London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1985), pp. 97-98.
For an analysis of these dialogues, see Terpening, pp. 107-116.)
For an analysis of Dante's description of Charon and his other appearances in literature from ancient times to the 17th century in Italy, see Turpenin, Ron, Charon and the Crossing.
Pausanias. Description of Hellas X 28, 2; Miniade, French 1 Bernabe
Pausanias. Description of Hellas X 28, 1
See for collected source passages with work and line annotations, as well as images from vase paintings .

15. Oleg Igorin Two banks of Charon

An excerpt characterizing Charon (mythology)

“Please, princess ... prince ...” Dunyasha said in a broken voice.
“Now, I’m going, I’m going,” the princess began hastily, not giving Dunyasha time to finish what she had to say, and, trying not to see Dunyasha, she ran to the house.
“Princess, the will of God is being done, you must be ready for anything,” said the leader, meeting her at the front door.
- Leave me. It is not true! she yelled angrily at him. The doctor wanted to stop her. She pushed him away and ran to the door. “And why are these people with frightened faces stopping me? I don't need anyone! And what are they doing here? She opened the door, and a bright daylight in this previously dim room terrified her. There were women and a nurse in the room. They all moved away from the bed, making way for her. He lay still on the bed; but the stern look of his calm face stopped Princess Marya on the threshold of the room.
"No, he's not dead, it can't be! - Princess Mary said to herself, went up to him and, overcoming the horror that seized her, pressed her lips to his cheek. But she immediately pulled away from him. Instantly, all the strength of tenderness for him, which she felt in herself, disappeared and was replaced by a feeling of horror for what was before her. “No, he is no more! He is not there, but right there, in the same place where he was, something alien and hostile, some kind of terrible, terrifying and repulsive secret ... - And, covering her face with her hands, Princess Marya fell into the hands of the doctor, who supported her.
In the presence of Tikhon and the doctor, the women washed what he was, tied a handkerchief around his head so that his open mouth would not stiffen, and tied his diverging legs with another handkerchief. Then they put on a uniform with medals and laid a small shriveled body on the table. God knows who and when took care of this, but everything became as if by itself. By night, candles burned around the coffin, there was a cover on the coffin, juniper was sprinkled on the floor, a printed prayer was placed under the dead, shrunken head, and a deacon sat in the corner, reading a psalter.
As horses shied away, crowded and snorted over a dead horse, so in the living room around the coffin crowded people of strangers and their own - the leader, and the headman, and the women, and all with fixed, frightened eyes, crossed themselves and bowed, and kissed the cold and stiff hand of the old prince.

Bogucharovo was always, before Prince Andrei settled in it, a private estate, and the men of Bogucharov had a completely different character from those of Lysogorsk. They differed from them in speech, clothing, and customs. They were called steppes. The old prince praised them for their endurance in their work when they came to help clean up the Bald Mountains or dig ponds and ditches, but did not like them for their savagery.
The last stay in Bogucharovo of Prince Andrei, with his innovations - hospitals, schools and easier dues - did not soften their morals, but, on the contrary, strengthened in them those character traits that old prince called savagery. Between them there were always some kind of obscure talk, either about listing them all as Cossacks, or about a new faith to which they would be converted, then about some royal lists, then about an oath to Pavel Petrovich in 1797 (about which they said that then even the will came out, but the gentlemen took it away), then about Peter Feodorovich, who will reign in seven years, under whom everything will be free and it will be so simple that nothing will happen. Rumors about the war in Bonaparte and his invasion combined for them with the same vague ideas about the Antichrist, the end of the world and pure will.
In the vicinity of Bogucharov there were more and more large villages, state-owned and quitrent landlords. There were very few landowners living in this area; there were also very few servants and literates, and in the life of the peasants of this area were more noticeable and stronger than in others, those mysterious jets of Russian folk life, the causes and significance of which are inexplicable to contemporaries. One of these phenomena was the movement between the peasants of this area to move to some warm rivers, which manifested itself about twenty years ago. Hundreds of peasants, including Bogucharov's, suddenly began to sell their livestock and leave with their families somewhere to the southeast. Like birds flying somewhere beyond the seas, these people with their wives and children strove to go there, to the southeast, where none of them had been. They went up in caravans, bathed one by one, ran, and rode, and went there, to the warm rivers. Many were punished, exiled to Siberia, many died of cold and starvation along the way, many returned on their own, and the movement died down by itself just as it had begun without an obvious reason. But the underwater streams did not stop flowing in this people and gathered for some kind of new force that could manifest itself just as strangely, unexpectedly, and at the same time simply, naturally and strongly. Now, in 1812, for a person who lived close to the people, it was noticeable that these underwater jets produced powerful work and were close to manifestation.
Alpatych, having arrived in Bogucharovo some time before the death of the old prince, noticed that there was unrest among the people and that, contrary to what was happening in the Bald Mountains on a sixty-verst radius, where all the peasants left (leaving the Cossacks to ruin their villages), in the steppe zone , in Bogucharovskaya, the peasants, as was heard, had relations with the French, received some papers that went between them, and remained in their places. He knew through the courtyard people devoted to him that the peasant Karp, who had recently traveled with a state-owned cart, and who had a great influence on the world, returned with the news that the Cossacks were devastating the villages from which the inhabitants came out, but that the French did not touch them. He knew that another peasant had even brought yesterday from the village of Visloukhovo, where the French were stationed, a paper from the French general, in which the inhabitants were declared that no harm would be done to them and that everything that was taken from them would be paid for if they stayed. As proof of this, the peasant brought from Visloukhov one hundred rubles in banknotes (he did not know that they were fake), given to him in advance for hay.
Finally, and most importantly, Alpatych knew that on the very day he ordered the headman to collect carts for the export of the princess's convoy from Bogucharov, in the morning there was a gathering in the village, at which it was supposed not to be taken out and wait. Meanwhile, time was running out. The leader, on the day of the death of the prince, on August 15, insisted on Princess Marya that she leave on the same day, as it was becoming dangerous. He said that after the 16th he was not responsible for anything. On the day of the prince's death, he left in the evening, but promised to come to the funeral the next day. But the next day he could not come, because, according to the news he himself received, the French suddenly moved in, and he only managed to take his family and everything valuable from his estate.
For about thirty years, Bogucharov was ruled by the headman Dron, whom the old prince called Dronushka.
Dron was one of those physically and morally strong men who, as soon as they enter the age, will grow a beard, and so, without changing, live up to sixty - seventy years, without one gray hair or lack of a tooth, as straight and strong at sixty as at thirty.
Dron, soon after moving to the warm rivers, in which he participated, like others, was made headman steward in Bogucharovo, and since then he has been flawlessly in this position for twenty-three years. The men were more afraid of him than the master. Gentlemen, and the old prince, and the young, and the manager, respected him and jokingly called him a minister. During all the time of his service, Dron was never drunk or sick; never, not after sleepless nights, not after any kind of labor, did he show the slightest fatigue and, not knowing how to read and write, never forgot a single account of money and pounds of flour for the huge carts that he sold, and not a single shock of snakes for bread on every tithe of the Bogucharov fields.

We have already mentioned the gloomy figure, which is necessary for the disembodied entity to cross the Edge of the Worlds. Many peoples saw the Edge of the Worlds in the form of a river, often a fiery one (for example, the Slavic Currant River, the Greek Styx and Acheron, etc.). In this regard, it is clear that the creature that takes souls across this line was often perceived in the form boatman-carrier .
This river - Oblivion River, and the passage through it means not only the transfer of the soul from the world of the living to the world of the dead, but also the breaking of any connection, memory, attachment to the Supermundane world. That is why it is a River of no return, because there are no more motives for crossing it. It is clear that the function Carrier, carrying out this rupture of bonds, is critically important for the process of disincarnation. Without his work, the soul will be drawn again and again to places and people dear to it, and, therefore, will turn into utukku- the wandering dead.

Among the Etruscans, at first the role of the Carrier was performed by Turmas(Greek Hermes, who retained this function of the psychopomp - the driver of souls in later mythology), and then - Haru (Harun), who, apparently, was perceived by the Greeks as Charon. The classical mythology of the Greeks shared the idea of the Psychopomp (the “guide” of souls, responsible for the souls leaving the manifested world, the importance of which we have already discussed) and the Carrier, which acts as a guardian - the Gatekeeper. Hermes Psychopomp in classical mythology seated his wards in Charon's boat.

Elder Charon (Χάρων - "bright", in the sense of "Sparkling eyes") - the most famous personification of the Carrier in classical mythology. For the first time the name of Charon is mentioned in one of the poems of the epic cycle - Miniade.
Charon transports the dead along the waters of underground rivers, receiving for this a payment of one obol (according to the funeral rite, located under the tongue of the dead). This custom was widespread among the Greeks, not only in the Hellenic, but also in the Roman period. Greek history, was preserved in the Middle Ages and is even observed to the present. Charon transports only those dead, whose bones found rest in the grave. Virgil Charon is an old man covered with mud, with a disheveled gray beard, fiery eyes, in dirty clothes. Protecting the waters of the river Acheron (or Styx), with the help of a pole, he transports shadows on a canoe, and he takes some into the canoe, others, who have not received burial, drives away from the shore. According to legend, Charon was chained for a year because he transported Hercules across Acheron. As a representative of the underworld, Charon later came to be considered a demon of death: in this sense, he passed, under the names of Charos and Charontas, to modern Greeks, who represent him either in the form of a black bird descending on his victim, or in the form of a rider pursuing in the air crowd of the dead.

Northern mythology, although it does not focus on the river surrounding the worlds, nevertheless knows about it. On the bridge over this river Gyoll), for example, Hermod meets with the giantess Modgud, who lets him go to Hel, and, apparently, Odin (Harbard) refuses to transport Thor across the same river. Interestingly, in last episode the Great Ace himself assumes the function of the Carrier, which once again emphasizes the high status of this usually inconspicuous figure. In addition, the fact that Thor was on the opposite bank of the river indicates that, besides Harbard, there was another boatman for whom such crossings were commonplace.

In the Middle Ages, the idea of the Transportation of Souls was developed and continued. Procopius of Caesarea, historian of the Gothic War (6th century), gives a story about how the souls of the dead are sent by sea to the island of Brittia: “Along the coast of the mainland live fishermen, merchants and farmers. They are subjects of the Franks, but do not pay taxes, because from time immemorial they have had a heavy duty to transport the souls of the dead. Carriers wait in their huts every night for a conventional knock on the door and the voices of invisible creatures calling them to work. Then people immediately get up from their beds, impelled by an unknown force, go down to the shore and find boats there, but not their own, but others', completely ready to go and empty. Carriers get into the boats, take up the oars and see that, from the weight of numerous invisible passengers, the boats are sitting deep in the water, a finger from the side. In an hour they reach the opposite shore, and meanwhile, in their boats, they could hardly have managed to overcome this path in a whole day. Having reached the island, the boats are unloaded and become so light that only the keel touches the water. Carriers do not see anyone on their way and on the shore, but they hear a voice that calls the name, rank and kinship of each arrival, and if this is a woman, then the rank of her husband.

To explain the moment of disincarnation under consideration, Christianity introduces the image of the Angel of Death, often known under the name Azrael (Hebrew "God helped"). In Christianity, the angel of death is sometimes called the archangel Gabriel. In any case, the need for a being to help bridge the threshold between life and death is recognized.

Thus, in addition to a Guide helping the soul to go from life to death, this path requires a figure that makes this process irreversible. It is this function of the Soul Carrier that makes him the darkest character in the disincarnation process.

Charon is a satellite of Pluto

Charon (134340 I) (eng. Charon from Greek Χάρων) is a satellite of Pluto discovered in 1978 (according to another version, it is a smaller component of the Pluto-Charon binary planetary system). With the discovery in 2005 of two other moons - Hydra and Nikta - Charon was also referred to as Pluto I. Named after Charon, the carrier of the souls of the dead across the river Styx in ancient Greek mythology. The New Horizons mission is expected to reach Pluto and Charon in July 2015.

Charon should not be confused with Chiron, a centaur planetoid.

Pluto and Charon (drawing).

Charon is traditionally considered a moon of Pluto. However, there is an opinion that since the center of mass of the Pluto-Charon system is outside Pluto, Pluto and Charon should be considered as a binary planetary system.

According to the draft Resolution 5 of the XXVI General Assembly of the IAU (2006), Charon (along with Ceres and the object 2003 UB 313) was supposed to be assigned the status of a planet. Notes to the draft resolution indicated that Pluto-Charon would then be considered a double planet.

However, in final version The resolution contained a different decision: the concept of a dwarf planet was introduced. Pluto, Ceres, and the object 2003 UB 313 have been assigned to this new class of objects. Charon was not included among the dwarf planets.

Characteristics

Charon is located 19,640 km from the center of Pluto; the orbit is inclined 55° to the ecliptic. Diameter of Charon is 1212±16 km, mass is 1.9×1021 kg, density is 1.72 g/cm³. One rotation of Charon takes 6.387 days (due to tidal braking, it coincides with the rotation period of Pluto), so Pluto and Charon are constantly facing each other with the same side.

Charon's discovery allowed astronomers to accurately calculate Pluto's mass. Features of the orbits of the outer satellites show that the mass of Charon is approximately 11.65% of the mass of Pluto.

Charon is noticeably darker than Pluto. It seems that these objects differ significantly in composition. While Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice, Charon is covered in water ice and has a more neutral color. It is now believed that the Pluto-Charon system was formed as a result of the collision of independently formed Pluto and proto-Charon; modern Charon was formed from fragments thrown into orbit around Pluto; some of the Kuiper belt objects could also have formed in the process.

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