Many people know at least some of the most famous Greek gods and goddesses like Zeus, Hera, Athena, or Poseidon and some might have never heard about Charon. Charon is a Greek god that lives in the Underworld. His role was to help ferry the dead into the Underworld so Hades could decide on what to do them with them in the afterlife.

Charon is the son of Nyx and Erebus, and He was described as a ragged, ugly, gloomy, and dirty elderly man who ferried a boat and held a pole or a double-headed hammer in his hand. His role as a god was to ferry the souls of the dead people across the River Styx and the River Acheron into the Underworld of Hades. Charon required a fee of a coin that is usually put in the mouth of the dead. In the Underworld, the souls are Left to Hades to decide how the dead would spend their afterlife. When a coin was not paid, the souls of the dead were left to wander the banks of the Acheron River, haunting the world as ghosts (Atsma). Charon is remembered and also "regarded as the image of death and of the world below," and "the angel of death in modern Greek folklore (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica)."  He is also sometimes regarded as a spirit or a daemon ("Charon." Greek Gods & Goddesses.)

The website Greek Legend s and Myths states that Hermes would often times bring the newly deceased souls to the banks of the River Acheron, and from there, Charon would take them across the river to the Underworld, as long as they could pay the fare. While Charon usually only took the dead across the Acheron river, he has helped living people like Theseus and Pirithous. They were taken by Charon to the Underworld to when they came to take Persephone away from the Underworld. There have also been a few instances where other gods were able to convice Charon to take them in their boat without paying a coin. An Instance of this is when Heracles forced Charon to take him to the realm of Hades, and as a result, Charon was punished to a year in chains.

To tie sum up Charon is regarded as an important god because of his role in ferrying the souls of the dead in the afterlife. The ancient Greeks believed in gods and the afterlife, so funerals were an important to do right. Charon was a ferryman bringing and if it was not for him, no one would be able to cross the river Archean and reach the underworld (Greek Legends and Myths).