The boatman

[map08]

Hi, how far does the boatman carry souls into the next world? Is there an exact measurement given in myths?

[sft42]

Charon, in Greek mythology, is the ferryman of the dead. The souls of the deceased are brought to him by Hermes, and Charon ferries them across the river Acheron but I can find no reference to any distance. He only accepts the dead which are buried or burned with the proper rites, and if they pay him an obolus (coin) for their passage. For that reason a corpse had always an obolus 1 placed under the tongue. Those who cannot afford the passage, or are not admitted by Charon, are doomed to wander on the banks of the Styx for a hundred years. Living persons who wish to go to the underworld need a golden bough obtained from the Cumaean Sibyl. Charon is the son of Erebus and Nyx. He is depicted as an sulky old man, or as a winged demon carrying a double hammer. He is similar to the Etruscan (Charun).

[map08]

So that means that in Greek mythology, any warrior killed on a battlefield would not, like Norse, be accepted into the afterlife unless he or she was given a proper burial?

[bossuk]

from what i hear there is a myth, quite like the greek myth. the myth says that when you die you can only get passage to the afterlife by way of passage over a river of fire. a boatman who is nothing more than a robed skeleton requests a six pence coin for way of passage. this is all i know on this myth so sorry its not very detailed. this is why when people died in victorian times they were buried with two sixpennies on each eye. this was to protect the soul and to pay the boatman

[firefly]

Surely the boatman doesn't carry souls into the next world, they only cross a river which is in the next world?

[addied]

Strictly speaking in terms of the ferryman myth, the 'next world' is the other side of the river styx. So in answer to the original question, the distance travelled is the width of the river. P.S. read Virgil's Aeneid Book VI for some amazing underworld description.

[map08]

So does anybody how wide the river is?

[firefly]

As it's not a 'physical' river, perhaps that's why a measurement is not given. If the journey was a real (i.e. non-ethereal) one, perhaps a distance would be given.