The Ferryman

Bring some spirits as a bribe... and not the religious kind.

Don't pay the ferryman!
Don't even fix a price!
Don't pay the ferryman
Until he gets you to the other side!

— Chris de Burgh

An old archetype, the ferryman is a character (and sometimes Deus ex Machina) who acts as a guide or aid to another character, allowing them to travel over near-impossible obstacles to reach (or at least help reach) a specific destination.

The most classic depiction is Charon of the River Styx^note Early sources have him ply the River Acheron instead, who aided souls across said river if he was paid, as there was a worse price to pay if you tried to swim through the waters. Like Charon, many later Ferrymen take travelers across metaphysical and mythological boundaries, whether these be a latter-day Underworld River or some other boundary between worlds. Also like Charon, the archetype's representative need not be good or even evil; the character need not also be a literal ferryman; practically anything that can transport something/someone from one place to another is considered acceptable, including flight, teleportation, or even "dream walking."

In some cases the Ferryman is the neutral counterpart to the Mentor, even adviser, as the ferryman can guide through more than just the obstacles of the physical spectrum… although usually at a price/reason of fair enough degree (be it a coin of burial gold, or a promise to aid the nation's resistance against the Empire).

Not to be confused with the play of the same time written by Jez Butterworth.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Fullmetal Alchemist: Truth (only in the manga and second anime). He is neutral, requires a toll, is oddly personal, knows more than he's saying, and is connected to death.
• Hell Girl: Emma Ai's job is to ferry people across the Sanzu River to Hell after they are sent there by means of Hell Correspondence. As of the end of the fourth season, Michiru has the same job.
• Saint Seiya: The heroes come across the Acheron river after arriving on Hades's Underworld. In order to get across it, they need to be escorted by Acheron Charon, one of the Specters under Hades. Like its classic counterpart, he allows the Saints of Athena to embark on his boat even though they're enemies, as long as they can pay the equivalent toll, which is paid by Shun with a pendant he had as a memento of his mother.
• YuYu Hakusho: Botan ^note along with the other ferry girls is the Japanese equivalent of the Ferryman, which is why she wields a paddle as a weapon.

Arts

• Sistine Chapel: Charon, who brought the dead to the Underworld in Greek myth, is featured in The Last Judgement with a boat full of the damned. Not that he's trying to be helpful, as he has raised his oar and held it back to scare them off his boat right into a pile of grabby demons.

Comic Books

• 2000 AD:
  • In The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael (and the Dead Left in His Wake), the ferryman appears as a grizzled old prospector type who carries each soul down the river towards judgement. He's also the instigator of the whole series as he wanted to escape an eternity of service by going to the land of the living. He manipulated Ichabod to create a portal there by giving him fake memories of a woman he loved as well as the means to fight demons and angels. However, if Charon just abandons his job, all reality will start to unravel.
  • One of the various contract killers who inhabit Downlode in Sinister Dexter is named Charon, and he has a day job as a taxi driver. His eyes are purple with white skulls for pupils. Kal Cutter is the first person ever to notice the symbolism.
• In the series All-Star Superman, Lex Luthor has his niece Nasthalthia, who acts as a ferryman by rowing Clark Kent to safety.
• In the original The Books of Magic miniseries, the Trenchcoat Brigade (the Phantom Stranger, John Constantine, Doctor Occult and Mister E) serve as ferrymen for Tim Hunter, showing him DC's Post-Crisis magical universe, its many worlds, its history, and its future.
• Crossed: Skip in Wish You Were Here, whose boat is used on the sorties from the human refuge of Cava to the mainland for scavenging trips. This is lampshaded when Shaky calls him "our own personal Charon for our own personal [river] Styx.
• In the graphic novel Heck, which takes place in Dante's version of Hell, both Charon and Phlegyas make appearances.
• In Promethea, Sophia Bangs ascends onto the higher levels of the Immateria in order to find her predecessor, Barbara, to finish the business she had with her. On the way to the first Sephirot, she enlists the help of Charon the Ferrymen from Classical Mythology (confusing him for an allegorical character from a 16th century engraving she ran into earlier since they both come from the same "old man" archetype), who agrees to take her to the Nancy Nox, a houseboat from an old story her ancestor wrote. As she steps off of his boat, he asks for payment, Promethea finding a pentacle-coin in her pocket, Charon claiming that it represents her earthly awareness, something she will not need on her journey.
• Spider-Man 2099: It's heavily implied that Dash the taxi driver (and later bus driver) is this. The first time Miguel encounters him as a kid, he appears to be an average dude who gives good advice (and accidentaly kicks off half the plot of the comic). The second time, when Miguel is an adult, his appearance is completely unchanged, he is driving a bus full of average-looking but off-putting people on a rocky road numbered 666 which is "paved with good intentions", and somehow knows Miguel's Secret Identity. In addition, his bus is being chased by bizarre beings that target the passengers. Miguel is left wondering if it was just a dream once all is said and done.
• In one issue of Superboy (1994), during the period when Brainiac-13 had turned Metropolis into a literal City of Tomorrow, Superboy discovers the Absurdly Spacious Sewers are traversed by a guy who found a rubber raft and a stick with an outboard motor on the end, and decided to become an archetype.
• Wonder Woman features Charon himself across several versions.
  • In Wonder Woman (1987) getting passage on Charon's boat is the safest and surest way to reach the part of the underworld that is actually Hades and Elysium and Tartarus can only be reached by passing through Hades and past Elysium.
  • In Wonder Woman: Odyssey Charon remains at the banks of the river, even while the realm of Hades is overflowing and crumbling in the wake of Hades' disappearance.

Fan Works

• The Merchant from Perseth recovers a drowning Applejack in Ask Crapplejack and becomes her guide during her time in the Interstice dimension.

Films — Animated

• Disney's Hercules depicts Charon as a skeleton without his usual hooded robe, though the Disney's Hades Challenge video game based on the movie restored the robe.

Films — Live-Action

• In the original 1981 Clash of the Titans, Charon appears as a living skeleton ferrying Perseus and party across the River Styx to Medusa's lair. Charon also appears in the remake as a living skeletical ship.
• Ghost Ship: The Ferryman turns out to be the Big Bad, using the disguise of a human named Jack Ferriman. He describes himself as a "salvage expert", only he collects souls to ferry them to hell, and takes a remarkably sadistic and bloodthirsty approach in doing so.
• In Operation: Dumbo Drop, Goddard is a cheerful French boatman, who loves the Americans, complete with having a framed photo of Lyndon Johnson. Captain Cahill, who has worked with Goddard in the past, turns the picture over, to reveal a photo of Ho Chi Minh.
  Goddard: What can I say? I love everybody.
• The Pirates of the Caribbean series has Davy Jones, who was supposed to fill the Charon role of ferrying souls who died at sea to the afterlife, but after being spurned by his former lover, the goddess Calypso, who embodied the sea itself, he instead turned his passengers into monstrous slaves, justifying his behaviour with "Life is cruel. Why should the afterlife be any different?" After his death, the lead character, Will Turner, ends up becoming his Redeeming Replacement, properly doing his duties for 10 years before returning to his wife in The Stinger.
• Han Solo in Star Wars: A New Hope explicitly only signs on to give Luke and Obi-Wan a ride to the planet Alderaan to take the Death Star plans to Bail Organa, and for a considerable fee at that. He gets caught up in the rest of the adventure when Alderaan goes bye-bye courtesy of the Death Star, they are captured by the Imperials and he ends up helping rescue Princess Leia.

Literature

• One is encountered in Wintersmith who happens to have the same accent as a certain recurring character. He tries to extort the heroes for an additional fee to take them out of the Underworld, but is thwarted when the Nac Mac Feegle threaten to stay.
• The Divine Comedy: Multiple ferrymen appear, two in Hell to take travelers across the rivers of the Pit and one at the foot of Purgatory.
  • The first one is Charon, the classic archetype. He ferries the souls of the recently deceased sinners across the river Acheron to Hell.
  • The second one is Phlegyas^note Phlegyas was a Greek king whose daughter was raped by Apollo. He became so enraged that he burned down a temple dedicated to said god, getting killed by Apollo in retaliation. This, in Dante's mind, was enough to make him a symbol of wrath, who ferries Dante and Virgil across the Styx in the fifth circle of Hell.
  • The third one is an angel who guides ferries the souls of the repentant dead to the foot of Mount Purgatorio. This angelic figure, with its great speed and holy guise, contrasts with the gruesome beings that travel throughout the Inferno Dante had just climbed out of.
• In An Elegy for the Still-living Acheron himself shows up... as the name of an ocean, which then proceeds to play this trope straight.
• In The Friendship Song, the ferryman appears as Harper and Rawnie's school principal, demanding gold or something worth gold.
• There's a character in The Amber Spyglass who is basically Charon, though he's not named. He (unwillingly, as they're not actually dead yet) ferries Lyra and Will to the land of the dead.
• In For Love of Evil, when Satan has just assumed the Office, he tries to order Charon to take the soul of a woman who is struggling in the Styx. Eventually, he succeeds through the power of song (one of his main gifts).
• The Ferryman plays a very important symbolic role in Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, where he enables Siddartha to pass between various phases in his life.
• In Warrior Cats, this role is shared by all of StarClan. They pick one of their warriors to guide a cat who is dying to them, usually one who was important in the dying cat's life.
• In the Disney Chills book Liar, Liar, Head on Fire, Charon appears to escort Hector across the Styx and reveals he was once human before Hades enslaved him.

Live-Action TV

• CSI: NY: At the end of the Cabbie Killer arc in Season 4, the perp is revealed to be a deranged man who believes himself to be Charon. His confession begins with:
  The newly dead who have coins to pay for the ride must be taken across the river, or they'll wander the banks for a hundred years.
• In The Mandalorian, at one point, the Mandalorian and his party encounters a Ferry droid to help them cross a river of lava to escape pursuit. Only to realize after they committed to the voyage that there were enemies waiting to kill them at the other end.
• In Once Upon a Time, Charon himself makes a few minor appearances in Season 5, to deliver souls and visitors to the Underworld.
• Star Trek: Voyager ("Barge of the Dead"). Klingons who die without honor aren't allowed into Valhalla (or "Sto-vo-kor"), but are instead sentenced to Gre'thor, their version of Hell. The Barge of the Dead is the mythological ship to Gre'thor, captained by Kortar, the very first Klingon. When Kortar became more powerful than the gods who created him, he destroyed them, and, as punishment, he was condemned to ferry the souls of the dishonored for all eternity.
• Played for Laughs in an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati: The owner of a chain of funeral homes is named Ferryman.
• Referred to in Who Pays the Ferryman?; when the main villain decides to make it clear to the hero that he intends to kill him after his attempts to drive him from Crete have failed, he sends him two coins and a note that simply reads: "For Charon".

Music

• Chris de Burgh's early-'80s hit "Don't Pay The Ferryman" is a rather straightforward retelling of the Ferryman trope. However it warns that you shouldn't pay until you reach the other side, presumably because of the fear that the ferryman will just take your money and then abandon you.
• The DJ who opens and closes The Weeknd's Concept Album Dawn FM is this, easing the listener through the experience of death and, in the closing track "Phantom Regret by Jim", guiding them out of Purgatory to Heaven. "Jim" refers to his performer, Jim Carrey, and as that casting suggests he's portrayed as a Trickster Mentor prone to light snarking and wordplay, with the closing track a rhyming poem with Dr. Seuss-ian rhythms and sentiments.

Mythology and Religion

• Classical Mythology: Charon, the ferryman of Hades, is the Trope Codifier.
• Mesopotamian Mythology: Urshanabi is the literal Ur-Example.
• Nart Sagas: The little old boatman and his wife are the guardians of the souls of the Narts. Closely linked with the land of the dead, he dispenses wisdom to the heroes and ensures their safe passage.
• In the fairy tale "The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs", on his way to the Underworld to fetch the Devil's hairs, the protagonist meets a mysterious ferryman who is growing tired of his job of ferrying souls to Hell. The protagonist learns, by eavesdropping on the Devil, that the ferryman can get someone to take his place by getting them to take his oar. Sure enough, the next person to come by (who happens to be the king who'd spent the whole story trying to get rid of the protagonist) falls for it, and is forced to take up the ferryman's job.
• In one story in Norse Mythology, Thor comes to a river and spots a ferryman on the other side, calling on him to ferry him over. The two proceed to have a shouting match consisting of the ferryman insulting Thor and Thor threatening to beat him up, but not being able to do much since the ferryman is on the other side of the river. Thor ends up having to walk around the river that day. Valhalla adapted this story by having the ferryman be a disguised Odin.

Tabletop Games

• In Dungeons & Dragons, one subset of the fiendish Yugoloths are the Marraenoloths, near-skeletal figures in tattered robes who make a living plying the River Styx. They remain strictly neutral in the Blood War, allowing them access to all the Lower Planes, and their supernatural nautical skills make them among the safest options for getting around the worst part of the Great Wheel. But since they are at heart mercenaries, there's a small chance that they'll deliver passengers into an ambush arranged by a third party, a chance that can be reduced by paying them more than their asking fee, of course.
• One of the gods of Theros (each inspired by Greek deities) in Magic: The Gathering is Athreos who's an Expy of Charon. His duties are incorporated into his card's effect, which forces your opponent to pay a toll of life in order to ensure that your creatures stay dead. The Dungeons and Dragons supplement Mythic Oddysies of Theros exapnds on his character, and offers one explanation for why he demands a coin from each soul: Athreos was the first mortal to ever die, and got saddled with the job of ferrying all who came after him by the gods who didn't want to do it themselves. They promised Athreos he could be free to join them if he collects five coins they scattered into the world, and he's still looking for them. Given Theros is run by Clap Your Hands If You Believe, it's likely this story is exactly as true as mortals believe it to be.
• Pathfinder: Thanadaemons can be hired to bring you anywhere the interplanar River Styx flows on their skiffs, though they have a tendency to renegotiate their payment mid-journey. And even people powerful enough not to fear a thanadaemon's betrayal should be wary of their master Charon, Horseman of Death, who has a fondness for impersonating them.
• Wraith: The Oblivion:
  • The Ferrymen are a society of wraiths who have sworn an oath to protect those who seek Transcendence, and to police the Underworld for those who would abuse the living. Charon was one of them, back when they first began, but they went separate ways after Charon became ruler of Stygia, the Western Underworld. They are not quite like other wraiths; their initiation ritual transforms them, giving them powers and weaknesses other wraiths do not share (it should be noted that Charon never underwent the ritual, though he's unique in other ways).
  • The Harbingers' Guild specializes in Argos, the art of Underworld travel, its members making use of it to serve various roles in the Underworld, such as guides, traders, explorers and messengers.
• Sylvan Ferrylotus in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. In his artwork, he's guiding Marshalleaf to his next destination. In Sylvan Waterfall Ride, Ferrylotus looks scared and steadies himself by holding onto the lotus leaf. Despite this, the Peaskeeper trio is still heading for their next destination.

Theater

• In Les Misérables, a pair of dead characters reappear to usher another into the afterlife. When Jean Valjean is dying, Fantine appears first, echoing Valjean's words to comfort her as she was dying, before disappearing when Cosette and Marius enter. Then when Valjean is fully dead, she and Eponine come and take him to heaven, where Enjolras, Gavroche, and the other dead students are waiting. In the 2012 film, Eponine is replaced by the Bishop from early in the show (despite the fact that the Bishop's death is only mentioned in the book and not in the show or movie).
• Played with in A Very Potter Musical. After Dumbledore's apparent death, Rumbleroar, the thought-to-be-fake headmaster of the thought-to-be-fake wizarding school on Mars, Pigfarts, appears to take Dumbledore away to Pigfarts. It's a very bizarre scene, to say the least.

Video Games

• The Great Mizuti is happy to be this and the deus ex machina for Baten Kaitos! Ta-ladi-da-di-da, Ta-ladi-da.
• In BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm, the Fine Bros. (yes, those Fine Bros.) begrudgingly agree to become this when the party needs an airship to reach the high-flying Wayback Machine. They make it clear that it’s a one-way trip, though: they’ll get you up there alright, but then you’re on your own.
• The Ferryman is a recurring character in the Castlevania series. He has appeared in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
• The Curse of Monkey Island has one, but it's the Lost Welshman who needs a compass so that he can send Guybrush to Skull Island.
  • In Tales of Monkey Island, when Guybrush arrives at the Crossroads Gateway as a Ghost Pirate, he encounters a skeletal Ferryman with a gold tooth who keeps his boat clean and bears a slight resemblance to the Lost Welshman; except that this Ferryman needs to be paid with "the golden eyes of everlasting sleep", i.e., two gold coins that are placed on the eyes of the dead, so that he can ferry arriving souls to the Center of the Crossroads (just like in Greek mythology), after which he'll no longer appear once his journey is complete.
• One is encountered in the Ancient Greece levels of Daikatana, forcing you to find some drachma to pay him with before you can proceed to the next stage.
• Charon is in Dante's Inferno as the boat that leads damned souls to their judgment in Hell. Since so many people went to Hell, he's had to grow to gargantuan sizes.
• In the NES game Day Dreamin' Davey, one of the stages of Ancient Greece has Charon in Hades' underworld lair who will guide Davey through the River Styx at the cost of one coin.
• Dragon Age: Origins has an example Played for Laughs, a goofy templar you need to convince to take you to the Circle of Magi. Depending on your active Player Party, you have various options, including him being Distracted by the Sexy... or offering him a bribe of cookies. (The game files instruct the voice actor to play him as a Monty Python-like character.)
• In The Elder Scrolls Action-Adventure spin-off game, Redguard, the ferryman is a large upper half of a skeleton attached to the ferry itself. Though silent, he will take you to the Isle of N'Gasta only when you pay three gold pieces.
• Elden Ring has the Tibia Mariner, a Recurring Boss that takes the form of a skeleton piloting a ghostly boat. It attacks by summoning hordes of undead and bashing the Tarnished with his enormous horn.
• Final Fantasy has the techno genius Cid, who, in most of his incarnations, has eventual access to an airship that can sometimes even go beyond the main world in question!
• Charon himself appears in God of War: Chains of Olympus. You kill him.
• In GrimGrimoire, the Ferryman Charon is a unit you can create. In addition to being a troop transport unit, it can also ''throw'' its passengers at the enemy in a pinch.
• In Hades, Charon appears in the Underworld filling the role of the Friendly Shopkeeper and sells items to Zagreus between runs; of course he does ferry souls to the land of the dead off-screen and even ferries Zagreus and his mother Persephone back to the Underworld during the End Credits.
• The Boatman in MediEvil is surprised to see Sir Dan again, since he usually only takes passengers on one-way trips. He offers you transport to the next level if you find him some Lost Souls (what with the dead rising, he lost track of them).
• King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne has one to help Graham to the vampire's castle. The Fan Remake version gets creepier as he Was Once a Man, and knows why Graham is there, but will ferry him anyway. A second one is in King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow, literally ferrying the souls of the dead across the underworld's river — if they have their fare, that is. If you don't have yours, you die.
  "Hey! That's not fare!"
• Charon is waiting for the player character if you die in Oedipus in my Inventory.
• Captain Briney serves this role in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. After rescuing his Wingull Peeko from a Mook, he offers to ferry you around, letting you freely go between Petalburg City, Dewford Island, and Slateport City, all several hours before you can teach your pokemon surf to go there by yourself.
• In Rogue Legacy and its sequel, Charon will escort you to the castle at the cost of all of your gold on hand. After upgrading your castle, you can keep a portion of your gold to use on upgrades for your next run.
• In Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space episode 5, Harry Moleman takes the literal role of Charon as a conductor for the SoulTrain.
• In Secret of Evermore, there is a desert ferryman who will ferry you across the desert to the Nobilia Trading Market... at the cost of one Amulet of Annihilation. He's chatty for a skeleton, constantly remarking on the desert scenery like a tour bus captain.
• In Secret of Mana, you meet a cute creature named Karon (a mistranslation of "Charon") in the desert, who will ferry you through the Sea of Stars to the Moon Palace... without cost, of course.
• In Shadowgate, there is a ferryman who leads the player character to the final boss's room. Passage requires a large gold coin, but only needs to be paid once.
• Across the Shin Megami Tensei series, he has appeared with some regularity - he appeared as a Persona of the Death Arcana in Persona 2 and in an actual gameplay role in Shin Megami Tensei IV. Should you die, you will be taken before him at the shores of the Styx - except he's massively overworked and quite willing to look the other way to take you back. The problem is doing so is technically against his duties as a ferryman, but no worries there... Macca opens all doors.
• Spiritfarer opens with your character being given Charon's job. Gameplay revolves around collecting souls from various islands and fulfilling their requests. Once all of a soul's requests are met, you are tasked with delivering them to the 'Everdoor' so that they can move on to the next plane of existence.
• The Underwhere in Super Paper Mario is clearly based on Hades, including a creature named Charold who ferries Mario across the River Twygz.
• Touhou's Komachi Onozuka is technically a Shinigami, but she works as a ferrywoman rather than a reaper. She's simultaneously The Slacker and Brilliant, but Lazy - Komachi goes at a slow pace and accumulates a huge work backlog, but spends a lot of time having friendly chats with each soul she ferries across the Sanzu River to be judged by her superior, or takes breaks to give advice to the living.
• In Ultima VII, an undead creature called The Ferryman will transport mortals to and from the doomed island city of Skara Brae, for the price of 2 gold.
• ULTRAKILL features the Ferryman as a boss enemy rather than a guide. It appears as a blue skeleton with a veil over its head and upper body, and wields its oar as its weapon. Battling it on the deck of its ship will allow you to continue on to the next level, which is the ferry itself. Alternatively, you could toss a coin to the Ferryman for it to open the exit door, calling back to how ferrymen accept money to allow you to board their boat.
• Undertale has a mysterious hooded riverman ("Or am I the riverwoman...? It doesn't really matter.") who will rather cheerfully row you back to previous areas once you reach Hotland. And occasionally makes cryptic references implying that they know more than they're letting on.
• Xena: Warrior Princess: In the third and last stage set in hell, Xena has to summon the ferryman to transport her across a pool of lava, by aiming her chakram to hit a hard-to-reach bell.
• Zork: Grand Inquisitor has you paying Charon, who appears as a skeletal ferryman in a jaunty blue and white cap, in order to cross into Hades as part of your quest. Of course, calling Charon in the first place is a puzzle in itself, as is getting back when he refuses to let anyone make return trips.
• Little Misfortune has Death himself waiting for Misfortune at the end of the 2nd act and jumps off his boat to get away from Misfortune at the beginning of the 3rd act.
• Hades: Charon naturally makes an appearance, selling items on the bank of the Styx. While Zagreus would happily pay his fee to be brought to the world of the living, he unfortunately never takes him up on the offer. He does, however, take Zagreus and Persephone back down the river when the latter returns to the underworld in the game's ending. Charon also serves as a shopkeeper and provides the prince with various wares for a price, punishing theft by engaging him in a challenging fight.

Web Comics

• Charon himself shows up in several strips of Irregular Webcomic! in the Imperial Rome and Death themes, beginning here.
• The one in Monster Soup has No Name Given, likely because of his Nominal Importance beyond his role as a ferry man.
• Death plays this role in Slightly Damned. Souls are buried with coins to pay him to carry them across the river to whatever their destined afterlife is. Souls who are not buried with money or who refuse to pay have to swim to the afterlife.

Western Animation

• Animaniacs has Charon appear to help the Warner Brothers (and Sister) escape from Hell. And then he sings with them. No, really.
• In Legend of the Three Caballeros, Charon has turned his ferryboat into a party cruise ship and taken on a more light-hearted persona to better attract customers and actually have some fun with his job.
• Potentially referenced in Over the Garden Wall via the character of Beatrice (note the name reference to The Divine Comedy). In Chapter 6, she helps Wirt and Greg sneak aboard a ferry whose crew and passengers are all frogs. They don't have the two pennies required to pay for the ride and find themselves pursued by law enforcement. Given the revelation that the boys are fighting for their lives, many viewers have wondered whether they don't have the money because they aren't dead.
• "Hanging By a Thread" episode of The Real Ghostbusters has the Ghostbusters going to hell and meeting Charon in the Styx river. He agrees to transport them in exchange of a sandwich.

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