Background Information on The Ferryman

Background Information on The Ferryman

For one of the lead characters in our film, 'River', we have chosen a prominent figure from Greek mythology, The Ferryman. Charon (or Kharon), in Greek mythology, is known as 'the ferryman of Hades', who carries the souls of the recently deceased across the rivers of Styx and Acheron, that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. An obolus or danake coin was usually placed in the mouth of the dead person, in order to pay Charon for the passage. Many authors state that those who did not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were unburied, were forced to roam the shores for roughly one hundred years. He is depicted in ancient Greek art as an ugly, bearded man with a crooked nose. Dante Alighieri, in 'Divine Comedy', described Charon using Virgil's depiction in 'Aeneid 6'. Dante depicts him as having eyes of fire. He also appears elsewhere as a mean-spirited and gaunt old man, or as a winged demon wielding a double hammer. Michelangelo's interpretation, influenced by Dante's depiction in the 'Inferno', presents him with an oar over his shoulder, ready to beat those who delay. In recent years, Charon has been commonly portrayed as a living skeleton in a cowl, much like the Grim Reaper. In our short film, the Ferryman has been given the name Ron, as a way of updating the figure, and is tasked with taking the other lead character, Kevin, into the afterlife.