Aeneid Book 6, lines 295 - 330

Charon, the ferryman

by Virgil

The first terrors that Aeneas finds at the gates to the underworld are personified grief, care, disease and the other enemies of human happiness. Then comes a huge tree, to the underside of whose leaves false dreams cling; then a place where terrifying phantoms of the monsters of ancient myth writhe, hiss and threaten. Skirting these, Aeneas and the Sybil make for the Styx, the infernal river which the dead must cross to reach the underworld proper.

See the illustrated blog post here.

To follow the story of Aeneas in sequence, use this link to the full Pantheon Poets selection of extracts from the Aeneid. See the next episode here.

To listen, press play::

To scroll the original and English translation of the poem at the same time - tap inside one box to select it and then scroll.

Hinc via Tartarei quae fert Acherontis ad undas.
turbidus hic caeno vastaque voragine gurges
aestuat atque omnem Cocyto eructat harenam.
portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat
terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento
canities inculta iacet, stant lumina flamma,
sordidus ex umeris nodo dependet amictus.
ipse ratem conto subigit velisque ministrat
et ferruginea subvectat corpora cumba,
iam senior, sed cruda deo viridisque senectus.
huc omnis turba ad ripas effusa ruebat,
matres atque viri defunctaque corpora vita
magnanimum heroum, pueri innuptaeque puellae,
impositique rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum:
quam multa in silvis autumni frigore primo
lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alto
quam multae glomerantur aves, ubi frigidus annus
trans pontum fugat et terris immittit apricis.
stabant orantes primi transmittere cursum,
tendebantque manus ripae ulterioris amore.
navita sed tristis nunc hos nunc accipit illos,
ast alios longe summotos arcet harena.
Aeneas miratus enim motusque tumultu
‘dic,’ ait, ‘o virgo, quid vult concursus ad amnem?
quidve petunt animae? vel quo discrimine ripas
hae linquunt, illae remis vada livida verrunt?’
olli sic breviter fata est longaeva sacerdos:
‘Anchisa generate, deum certissima proles,
Cocyti stagna alta vides Stygiamque paludem,
di cuius iurare timent et fallere numen.
haec omnis, quam cernis, inops inhumataque turba est;
portitor ille Charon; hi, quos vehit unda, sepulti.
nec ripas datur horrendas et rauca fluenta
transportare prius quam sedibus ossa quierunt.
centum errant annos volitantque haec litora circum;
tum demum admissi stagna exoptata revisunt.’

From here is the way to the waters of Tartarean Acheron.
Here, turbid with mud, in a vast chasm a whirlpool
boils and belches all its sand into Cocytus.
A horrible ferryman keeps these waters and streams
in fearful squalor, Charon, on whose chin stand enormous,
unkempt grey whiskers, his eyes stand out in flame and
a filthy garment dangles by a knot from his shoulders.
He punts the boat with his pole, handles the sails
and carries bodies across in his murky boat; he is
old now, but for a god old age is raw and green.
A whole crowd poured and rushed towards the place,
mothers, husbands, bodies of high-minded heroes,
their life spent, boys and unmarried girls, and youngsters
placed on the pyre before their parents’ eyes: as many
as the leaves that fall in the woods at the first chill
of autumn, or as many as the birds that flock to the ground
from the high crosswinds when the cold year drives them
over the seas and send them to sunny lands.
Those in front stood begging to make the crossing,
and stretched their hands in longing for the far shore.
But the surly sailor takes now these, now those,
while excluding others far back from the beach.
Aeneas, startled and moved at the uproar, said
“tell me, what does this crowding to the river mean?
What do the souls want? On what basis must some leave
the banks, while others row the leaden waters?”
The aged seer curtly replied: “Anchises’ son,
undoubted seed of the gods, what you see are
the deep marshes of Cocytus and the lake of Styx,
by which the Gods fear to swear, then break the sacred
bond. All this crowd you see is destitute, unburied;
the boatman is Charon; these, who sail, are buried.
Nor may they cross the dread banks and roaring flood
before their bones have rested in their graves. A hundred
years they flit and wander round these shores; then finally
they are accepted and see the marshes they long for.”

`

More Poems by Virgil

  1. Aeneas sees Marcellus, Augustus’s tragic heir
  2. The Harpy’s prophecy
  3. Aeneas saves his son and father, but at a cost
  4. How Aeneas will know the site of his city
  5. Aristaeus’s bees
  6. The natural history of bees
  7. Dido falls in love
  8. Turnus is lured away from battle
  9. Jupiter’s prophecy
  10. Souls awaiting punishment in Tartarus, and the crimes that brought them there.
  11. Laocoon and the snakes
  12. Anchises’s ghost invites Aeneas to visit the underworld
  13. Aeneas tours the site of Rome
  14. King Mezentius meets his match
  15. Dido and Aeneas: Hell hath no fury …
  16. Aeneas is wounded
  17. Aeneas’s vision of Augustus
  18. More from Virgil’s farming Utopia
  19. Aeneas’s ships are transformed
  20. The Syrian hostess
  21. Dido and Aeneas: royal hunt and royal affair
  22. Rites for the allies’ dead
  23. Omens for Princess Lavinia
  24. The infant Camilla
  25. Aeneas rescues his Father Anchises
  26. Help for Father Aeneas from Father Tiber
  27. Virgil’s poetic temple to Caesar
  28. Laocoon warns against the Trojan horse
  29. Vulcan’s forge
  30. The Trojan Horse enters the city
  31. The journey to Hades begins
  32. Catastrophe for Rome?
  33. The portals of sleep
  34. In King Latinus’s hall
  35. Aeneas reaches the Elysian Fields
  36. Aeneas finds Dido among the shades
  37. Aeneas joins the fray
  38. A Fury rouses Turnus to war
  39. Juno is reconciled
  40. Aeneas arrives in Italy
  41. Dido’s release
  42. Fire strikes Aeneas’s fleet
  43. Turnus at bay
  44. Aeneas’s oath
  45. The Fury Allecto blows the alarm
  46. Mercury’s journey to Carthage
  47. The Trojans reach Carthage
  48. Palinurus the helmsman is lost
  49. Aeneas comes to the Hell of Tartarus
  50. Turnus the wolf
  51. Love is the same for all
  52. Hector visits Aeneas in a dream
  53. Storm at sea!
  54. New allies for Aeneas
  55. The Aeneid begins
  56. The death of Pallas
  57. Signs of bad weather
  58. The Trojans prepare to set sail from Carthage
  59. The death of Euryalus and Nisus
  60. Juno throws open the gates of war
  61. Virgil begins the Georgics
  62. King Latinus grants the Trojans’ request
  63. Aeneas learns the way to the underworld
  64. The farmer’s starry calendar
  65. The death of Priam
  66. Rumour
  67. Mourning for Pallas
  68. Aeneas prepares to tell Dido his story
  69. Virgil’s perils on the sea
  70. Sea-nymphs
  71. The farmer’s happy lot
  72. Virgil predicts a forthcoming birth and a new golden age
  73. The death of Dido.