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In Etruscan mythology, Charun was the psychopomp of the underworld known as Aita. His name may have been inspired by Charon from Greek mythology, though he bears much more resemblance to Chaldean demons or the Hindu divinities Shiva and Kali.

In representation, Charun was fundamentally different from his Greek counterpart. Charun was a large creature with a head wrapped in snakes, a vulture's hooked-nose, large tusks like a boar, large lips, pointed ears, a black beard, enormous wings, and snakes around his arms. He carries a hammer with which he bashes the souls of the dead, after presenting them with horses for the crossing, prodded along by the snakes of Nathuns. He is often accompanied by the goddess Vanth. He is the servant of Mantus and Mania, and, in addition to Charon, is comparable to the Greeks' Thanatos, the Erinyes, and the Keres.

Charun loves violence and participating in warfare. An Etruscan krater depicts Charun with Ajax slaughtering Trojan prisoners. This urn is currently held in Cabinet des Médailles 920, Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris.

Terpening notes that Charun's hammer or mallet is sometimes replaced with an oar, although it does not fit with his duties. Rovin says that some accounts (though he does not say which) depict him with a sword, and that he "slices" souls with it. He adds that Charun enjoys natural disasters, as well. The Charon of Vergil in the Aeneid is particularly cruel; according to W.F. Jackson Knight, "Vergil's Charon is not only the Greek ferryman of Aristophanes , but more than half his Etruscan self, Charun, the Etruscan torturing death-devil, no ferryman at all."

In contemporary popular culture

In contemporary times, Charun has never been as popular as his Greek counterpart, though there are a few occurences.

• Monster #100 of the Monster in My Pocket toy-line is Charun (1991). Unlike Ancient depictions, he is bald, bulky, and appears to be wearing no clothing.

• A reference to Charun in The Tribune's Curse: SPQR VII a 2003 novel by John Maddox Roberts depicts a person dressed as Charun in the Colosseum, killing people with a hammer, as was believed to have occurred there.

• He appears in the poetry of Rachel Blau DuPlessis.

References

There is not a great deal of English-language documentation about Charun. He receives notice in the following sources, and the reportage is mostly the same, though Terpening goes into more depth. Terpening gets his information from the French language writings of Franz de Ruyt: Charun, Démon étrusque de la mort. Rome: Institut Historique Belge, 1934 and his article, "Le Thanatos d'Eutipide et le Charun étrusque." L'Antiquité Classique 1 (1932), 70-73. He also cites Serafino Rocco's Il mito di Caronte nell'arte a nella letteratura, Torino: Clausen, 1897, chapter 4.

• Gimbutas, Marija. The Living Goddesses. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
• Knight, W.F. Jackson. Roman Vergil. 1944. Reprint Middlesex: Penguin, 1966.
• Müller, Carl Ottfried. Ancient Art and Its Remains; or a Manual of the Archæology of Art. Adamant Media Corporation, 2001.
• Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.
• Rovin, Jeff. The Encyclopedia of Monsters. New York: Facts on File, 1989. p. 50
• Starr, Chester G. A History of the Ancient World. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 1991.
• Terpening, Ronnie H. Charon and the Crossing: Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Transformations of a Myth. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 1984.
• Turner, Alice K. The History of Hell. Harvest Books, 1995.

Notes

1. Terpening, 14
2. Rovin, 50.
3. Terpening, 15
4. p. 257 (quoted in Terpening, 85)

See also

• Etruscan mythology
• Charon
• Vanth

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