Gabriel Teixeira

21L.001 PP3
November 24, 2014
Crossing the River Acheron

It is the act of questioning our beliefs and through introspection either reaffirming or updating

said beliefs that we as humans grow. One such question that has plagued religious civilizations for
millennia is that of which criteria must be met in order to attain passage into Hell. In Book VI of Virgils
epic, The Aeneid, Aeneas must venture into the underworld in search of his father. At the entrance to the
realm of Pluto, he encounters the river Acheron and its ferryman, Charon, who is the one to grant
passage across the river and asks of his guide, the Sybil, why some are let across and other not. This rite of
passage is almost identically paralleledalbeit some marked differencesin Canto III of Dantes Inferno.
These two episodes are as follows:
Here starts the pathway to the waters of Tartarean
Acheron. A whirlpool thick with sludge, its giant eddy
seething, vomits all of its swirling sand into Cocytus.
Grim Charon is the squalid ferryman, the guardian of
these streams, these rivers; his white hairs lie thick,
disheveled on his chin; his eyes are fires that stare, a
filthy mantle hangs down his shoulder by a knot. Alone,
he poles the boat and tends the sails and carries the
dead in his dark ship, old as he is; but old age in a god
is tough and green. And here a multitude was rushing,
swarming shoreward, with men and mothers, bodies of
high-hearted heroes stripped of life, and boys and
unwed girls, and young men set upon the pyre of death
before their fathers eyes: thick as the leaves that with
the early frost of autumn drop and fall within the
forest, or as the birds that flock along the beaches, in
flight from frenzied seas when the chill season drives
them across the waves to lands of sun. They stand;
each pleads to be the first to cross the stream; their
hands reach out in longing for the farther shore. But
Charon, sullen boatman, now takes these souls, now
those: the rest he leaves; thrusting them back, he keeps
them from the beach. That disarray dismays and
moves Aeneas: O virgin, what does all this swarming
mean? What do these spirits plead? And by what rule
must some keep off the bank while others sweep the
blue-black waters with their oars? The words the aged
priestess speaks are brief: Anchises son, certain
offspring of the gods, you see the deep pools of
Cocytus and the marsh of Styx, by whose divinity even

And here, advancing toward us, in a boat, an aged man

his hair was white with yearswas shouting: Woe
to you, corrupted souls! Forget your hope of ever
seeing Heaven: I come to lead you to the other shore,
to the eternal dark, to fire and frost. And you
approaching there, you living soul, keep well away from
thesethey are the dead. But when he saw I made no
move to go, he said: Another way and other harbors
not herewill bring you passage to your shore: a
lighter craft will have to carry you. My guide then:
Charon, dont torment yourself: our passage has been
willed above, where One can do what He has willed;
and ask no more. Now silence fell upon the wooly
cheeks of Charon, pilot of the livid marsh, whose eyes
were ringed about with wheels of flame. But all those
spirits, naked and exhausted, had lost their color, and
they gnashed their teeth as soon as they heard Charons
cruel words; the execrated God and their own parents
and humankind, and then the place and time of the
conceptions seed and of their birth. Then they
forgathered, huddled in one throng, weeping aloud
along that wretched shore which waits for all who have
no fear of God. The demon Charon, with his eyes like
embers, by signaling to them, has all embark; his oar
strikes anyone who stretches out. As, in the autumn,
leaves detach themselves, first one and then the other,
till the bough sees all its fallen garments on the ground,
similarly, the evil seed of Adam descended from the
shoreline one by one, when signaled, as a falcon
calledwill come. So do they move across the

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the High Ones are afraid to swear falsely. All these you
see are helpless and unburied. That ferryman is
Charon. And the waves will only carry souls that have a
tomb. Before his bones have found their rest, no one
may cross the horrid shores and the hoarse waters.
They wander for a hundred years and hover about
these banks until they gain their entry, to visit once
again the pools they long for.

darkened waters; even before they reach the farther

shore, new ranks already gather on this bank. My
son, the gracious master said to me, those who have
died beneath the wrath of God, all these assemble here
from every country; and they are eager for the river
crossing because celestial justice spurs them on, so that
their fear is turned into desire. No good soul ever takes
its passage here; therefore, if Charon has complained
of you, by now you can be sure what his words mean.

Book VI of The Aeneid, 390-434

Canto III of Inferno, 70-136

In both passages, the protagonistAeneas and Dante, respectivelyundergoes a rite of passage across
the river, symbolizing the reaffirmation of his beliefs as well as leading the reader to look at their own lives
and question whether they would pass across the river Acheron or not. In the realm of the dead, Charon
serves as guide for all those who must pass the river Acheron; simultaneously, Virgil is ultimately the guide
into Hell for the living.

The style of Virgils The Aeneid is characterized as the narrative epic, relying heavily on imagery

conveyed by a third-person narrator. In contrast, Dantes writing is a first-person narrative largely

exhibiting dialogue and autopsy as a means of characterization of his journey through Hell. In
accordance with this, Charon is described by Virgil as the squalid ferryman; his white hairs lie thick,
disheveled on his chin; his eyes are fires that stare, a filthy mantle hangs down his shoulder by a knot
(Virgil, VI.394-8). This vivid imagery of the white hairs brings to mind the image of a worn-down,
disheveled creature that has been transporting people across Acheron for all eternity with eyes full of fire
that have seen all that can be seen. The filthy mantle hanging by a knot is symbolic of his seeming frailty
at first sighthe seems so ancient and weak that it is as if his very existence were hanging by naught but a
knot. However, this seeming frailty is deceiving, for Virgil then goes on to state that old age in a god is
tough and green (Virgil, VI.401). Reminiscent of the ancient trunk of a tree, Charon stands firm, rooted
in his eternal task. Contrastingly, the first impression of Charon that Dante provides the reader is only as
an aged manhis hair [] white with years (Dante, III.83) followed by Charons own speech. The
ferryman informs the swarming dead that he is there to usher them to the eternal dark, to fire and frost

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(Dante, III.87), and seeing that Dante is alive, advises him to keep away from the dead and that a lighter
craft will have to carry him across. The ruthlessness and succinctness with which Charon delivers this
news to the dead reaffirms the characterization taken from Virgils description: rooted in his task to deliver
the damned to this such eternal land of damnation. Dante then goes on to reiterate Virgils telling of fiery
eyes with his description of Charon as a pilot whose eyes were ringed about with wheels of flame[and]
eyes like embers (Dante, III.99/109). Despite a variation in methods of characterization, Virgil and
Dante view Charon in an almost identical manner.

As Charon is performing his hellish task, countless dead swarm upon the shore, awaiting their

passage into Hell. This almost animalistic clustering along the shore is portrayed by the two poets by
means of strikingly similar similes about autumn leaves. Virgil describes them thick as the leaves that
with the early frost of autumn drop and fall within the forest (Virgil, VI.407-9), while Dante writes: As,
in the autumn, leaves detach themselves, first one and then the other, till the bough sees all its fallen
garments on the ground (Dante, III.112-4). The latter envisions the boarding of the dead onto Charons
vessel as the falling autumn leaves; the former likens the accumulation of said fallen leaves to the
swarming of dead on the shore, waiting to cross. In both poems, this is followed by a simile comparing the
dead to birds. Virgil once again writes of their flocking on the shore, as the birds that flock along the
beaches, in flight from frenzied seas when the chill season drives them across the waves to lands of sun
(Virgil, VI.409-11), and Dantealso sticking with his original imagery, writes how they will board
Charons ship one by one, when signaled, as a falconcalledwill come (Dante, III.116-7). Once
again, Virgil writes of the dead accumulating while Dante takes them off the shore. Yet despite this
difference in action, there lies an important fact that must be noted: in neither case do the avian-like dead
have control over their own actions. In Virgils simile, they are forced across the waves by the chill season,
in this case representing death itself; once the dead become domesticated, they have no choice but to
answer the call of their falconer: Charon. The description of Charon as grim (Virgil, VI.394) and a
demon (Dante, III.109) further instills a fear of Hell and of death in the reader, expediting the

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introspection of the reader. Charons role as the eternal guide of the dead into the realm of the
underworld is thus clear.

As the underworld is not the realm of the living, both Aeneas and Dante require a guide. Aeneas

is led by the Sybil, an aged priestess (Virgil, VI.422), and Dante is led by the poet who composed The
Aeneid: Virgil. The first dialogue seen in this episode from The Aeneid is Aeneas calling to the Sybil: O
virgin, what does all this swarming mean? Upon first glance, the words virgin and Virgil have a
similar etymology, which would thus imply that Virgil himself is leading both Dante and Aeneas through
the underworld. In the Renaissancethe time of Dantes writingsVirgil was referred to as Virga,
meaning wand. This referred to the magic that was expelled from his wand, symbolic of his pen.
However, in the mind of the Renaissance reader, a connection would have been made between Virgil,
Virga, and Virgomeaning virgin. Virgil is certainly leading Aeneas by means of his writing (Aeneas is
but a creation of Virgil), and we certain of his role as Dantes guide. Ultimately it is clear that Virgil is
guiding both Aeneas and Dante through Hell.

As is evident in Canto IV of Dantes Inferno, Dante is honored to be among the ranks of such

almost-divine poets as Virgil, Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. Not only inspired by Virgil, Dante
reveres Virgil as a master of the pen and the written word. Thus, he uses Virgils vision of the underworld
as the basis for his own, building upon it and aspiring to one day truly belong in the ranks of the great
poets. It is for this reason that he even goes so far as to appoint Virgil his guide through Hell. As we have
already seen, Virgil also serves as guide for Aeneas, leading us to question what makes Virgil so apt a guide
to the underworld. One such explanation lies in his very name: the virginal purity that is innate to Virgil
not only keeps him safe from harm but also the ability to guide the living in an untainted manner.

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