Erebus and Nox, the primordial darkness and night, begat Charon, the grim ferryman who poles the dead across the Styx to Pluto's realm.
Charon guards the passage into the underworld, ferrying the properly buried dead across the River Styx while refusing the unburied, who must wait a hundred years on the near shore.
Pluto commands every soul and servant in the underworld, and Charon answers to his authority — the ferryman poles his leaking boat across the Styx at the dark king's sufferance, selecting which shades may cross to the realm beyond.
Charon ferries the dead in Greek, Roman, and Etruscan tradition alike — the same grim boatman demanding his coin, though Etruscan tomb painters reimagined him as Charun, a blue-skinned demon who swings a hammer at the gates of the underworld.
The Sibyl presented the golden bough to Charon on behalf of the living Aeneas, and the grim ferryman grudgingly carried them across the Styx. His waterlogged boat groaned and shipped dark water under the weight of a mortal body it was never meant to bear.
Hercules forced his way past Charon during his descent to capture Cerberus, compelling the ferryman to carry him across the Styx by strength alone — no coin, no golden bough, only the hero's irresistible force.
Psyche carried two coins in her mouth to pay Charon twice — once descending to fetch a box of Proserpina's beauty for Venus, and once returning — navigating the ferryman's crossing where so many living mortals had been turned away.
The Sibyl brandished the Golden Bough before Charon at the bank of the Styx, and the ancient ferryman, recognizing the sacred token, carried her and Aeneas across the dark water in his groaning bark.
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