Charon (god)

In Greek mythology, Charon ("fierce brightness") was the ferryman of Hades. (Etruscan equivalent: Charun) He took the newly dead from one side of the river Acheron to the other if they had an obolus[?] (coin) to pay for the ride. Corpses in ancient Greece were always buried with a coin underneath their tongue to pay Charon. Those who could not pay had to wander the banks of the Acheron for one-hundred years.

The Cumaean Sibyl gave living people a golden bough necessary to cross the river while still alive.

Charon was the son of Erebus and Nyx.

He was depicted as a cranky, skinny old man or a winged demon with a double hammer.

It is often said that he ferried souls across the river Styx. This is untrue. By all accounts, the river was Acheron.