Comments for the name Charon

Charon ferried the dead with their silver in their mouths. The river was also called the River Nyx - which is another name.

Charon does indeed mean ‘fierce brightness’. He was the ferryman in the underworld that carried the dead across the river Acheron (not known as Nyx. There are Archeron, Styx, Lethe, Cocytus, Phlegethon, but no Nyx. Nyx is a goddess alone) but only if they had a silver coin (obolus) under their tongue. If not, they were cursed to wander the banks of the Acheron for 100 years. For this reason, Greek corpses were buried with a coin in their mouths.

Charon is the son of Nyx and her brother Erebus, therefore sibling of the Keres, Hemera, Moros and Eros.

He worked with Hades in Hades.

Pronounced KAIR-ahn.

Another way to pronounce this name is shar-on.

The moon of Pluto was named this. Ironically, Charon and Hades (Pluto) had correlating jobs.

Rory: I am sure this was intentional. Most planets (named after Roman gods and goddesses) have moons that are named after people relating to the planet's namesake (ex: Pluto and Charon, Neptune and Ariel, etc.)

Actually, Ariel is a moon of Uranus not Neptune. Uranus's moon's names are those that were in Shakespearan Plays. Examples: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon, etc. Examples of a few of Neptune's 13 moons are: Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, and Galatea, etc.

In Greek mythology Charon was said to be so ugly that he could not be looked upon by human eyes.

Pronounced CARE-ohn. Never SHAR-on, that was Chiron the centaur that trained heroes in Greek mythology.