Yes. Famously so. Although arguably the traditional coins are his fee, so tipping on top of that might be a good idea. Apparently the tradition was 1 or more coins in the mouth or cremated remains, usually of low denomination. So a few $1 coins should do. I guess Charon works on a volume model.
Alucard and a bunch of Belmonts get free rides, so just tell him you’re here to kill Dracula.
That’s literally what the coins left on your corpse’s eyelids were for, brah. One was the fare, the other was a tip.
Yes. That’s why the ancient Greeks buried their dead with a coin over each eye.
Edit: Oops, looks like the burial of the Barathian king in Game of Thrones has infected my memory. The coin goes in the mouth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon’s_obol
Edit: And the coin is the fare, not the tip. If you don’t pay, you don’t cross. Make sure your loved ones know about this.
Hey Papa John, pick one. Delivery fee and actually pay your employees or no delivery fee and I tip. No fucking double dipping.
Wasn’t this “just” the standard payment though to cross the river? E.g. if you can’t pay the fare you don’t cross?
Yes, I do believe you are correct–the coin is the fare and I see no record of a tipping Charon, so you’re probably fine just leaving a positive review.
Historians don’t like when people talk about it, but the tipping coin goes in the ass. Source: pulled it out my ass
You handle my ass
penniesdrachmae every day!Switching to ass nickels has been a pain
We must hang out with different historians!
5/5 would die again.
What if Charon only accepts coins with a certain concentration of silver, and later on when currencies began using mostly tin, people didn’t know because no one alive has crossed the river Styx, so they keep burying their dead with these coins but their souls just got stuck on the river bank because ol Charon’s just like “What do you play me for a fool? This coin is mostly tin!”
Outside of Game of Thrones, there’s a lot of anecdotal evidence of coins being placed on the eyes of the dead. I saw one example of Polish folklore who believed that when a person died with their eyes open, they were searching for a loved one to drag into death with them, so heavy coins were placed to keep their eyelids closed and protect their living family.
I also remember reading in a 40 year old novel that silver coins were placed on the eyes of vampire victims to prevent them from returning as undead. Obviously that one isn’t a reliable source, but shows the idea has been around for a while.
FYI - Game of Thrones places stones with eyes painted on them on their dead, not coins. So I thought that’s where my confusion was coming from, but I may have been exposed to the coin-on-the-eyelids you mention here.
According to the Greeks, yes.
not a tip, that’s the fare
Honestly Hades should just pay a living wage
Yes, you’re supposed to pay the ferryman.
The fact the passenger is on the boat in the first place suggests that he has paid the standard fee (or someone paid on his behalf). Tipping would be extra, which is the basis of the ethical quandary.
My question is, what does Charon (the ferryman) do with all the money?
hoard it like a dragon?
In Discworld, Death uses his old coins when he’s fucking around in the human world, mostly eating and getting drunk.
“I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT I COULD MURDER A CURRY.”
In “Mort”, when his apprentice asks where the money comes from, “IN PAIRS”.
Death and Charon are, in a way, like Santa Claus and Father Christmas. Often conflated but not actually the same entity.
What one does we can’t say for sure the other also does.
And that doesn’t even consider that Death in one universe might not be the same entity as Death in another, although maybe that’s just “Death / Charon” again at a higher level of meta.
Have you read Discworld or did you just come out with that?! Because Death taking over for Santa Claus is exactly the plot of “Hogfather”. My mind is going to blow if you didn’t know that.
If they ask to speak with your manager, they’re not Death.
Are you sure? Could be like passport control and they take you all the way to the next country / across the river and then if it ain’t right you’re stuck or go back.
Also he spends it on lap dances obviously.
Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, marijuana ecstasy and alcohoooolllll…
Or maybe a little dance could satisfy him too
USians probably
It would be rude if you didn’t.
Is this the same guy who was hoarding potions on his deathbed?
Is death taking you to heaven? No. Is death taking you to hell? Of course.
