Also called Charontas, Death.
The tale
The ancient ferryman Charon grew in Greek folk song into Charos, the figure of Death himself. He rides a black horse, carrying off the young and old, and the dead are dragged behind him or hung from his saddle. In the ballad of Digenis, the great hero wrestles with Charos on a marble threshing floor and at last is overcome. Laments call him cruel and ask him to give back their loved ones.
When they are met
- At funerals and memorials
- In laments (moirologia) sung for the dead
- On the Saturdays of Souls in the Orthodox calendar
Staying on their good side
- None are traditional to Charos himself; kollyva, candles and remembrance for the dead are the custom
- A lament or poem for someone who has died
Honouring them, or keeping safe
- Sing or read a lament for someone you have lost.
- Remember the dead on memorial days with candles and boiled wheat.
- Reflect on the ballads in which the brave wrestle Charos; love and grief are meant to be expressed.
What their tales teach
- Grief
- Understanding Greek funeral laments
- Facing mortality
Symbols
- black horse
- black clothes
- sword
- marble threshing floor
Charos belongs to Greek oral tradition, blending the ancient figure with Christian and Byzantine ideas.
Sources
- Margaret Alexiou, The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition (1974)
- J. C. Lawson, Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion (1910)
- Loring M. Danforth, The Death Rituals of Rural Greece (1982)
More Greek folklore
- The Nymphs The spirits of spring, tree and mountain
- Medusa The Gorgon whose gaze turns flesh to stone
- Circe The enchantress of the island of Aeaea
- The Sirens The singers of the deadly shore
- Satyrs The wild revellers of Dionysus
- Kallikantzaroi The goblins of the Twelve Days
- The Neraides Fairy women of springs and hills
- Vrykolakas The restless dead of Greek villages