In Greek mythology and Roman mythology , Charon or Kharon is a psychopomp , the ferryman of Hades , often depicted with a long pole, who carries souls of the newly deceased across the river Styx that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake , was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person. [1] Some authors say that those who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were left unburied, had to wander the shores for one hundred years, until they were allowed to cross the river.