Charon\'s Obol and Other Coins in Ancient Funerary Practice PDF

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Week 11 Nov 24-30, online lectures by Professor Jennifer Moore...

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Subject matter ○ Steven’s focuses on interpreting the significance of behind the coins mentioned in the custom of Charon’s obol ○ Her approach involved critically analyzing the ancient authors who lived in ancient greece, Rome and other Mediterranean states within the date range of 2nd cen CE and 5th cen BCE as well as interpreting the material remains found within cemeteries in the mediterranean that were frequented during the same time frame to further understand how ancient Greek and Roman societies might have perceived coins in funerary context Thesis ○ Argues that to understand the funerary significance of “Charon’s obol” within society, it is necessary to remove the mythical theme ○ To realize what these coins might have symbolized we must distance ourselves from Charon and critically analyze the work of ancient authors as well as the physical remains found at cemeteries regarding money and death Article Summary: Intro ○ Throughout the late 5th cen BCE to 2nd cen CE, ancient authors mentioned the placements of a bronze obol (coin) in the mouth of the deceased as payment to Charon for transporting the soul into the underworld ○ Ancient authors mentioning this funerary custom are separated by a long bridge of time ■ Widely differ in cultural context ■ Focus on mythical themes ○ Ancient cemeteries interpret a different reality ■ Small proportion of burials contain coins and these don’t follow the ancient authors written works ○ Charon’s obol vs Charon’s fee ○ Much written on Charon, but few interpret the meaning of the coin ○ Stevens suggests we separate the custom on the coin from the myth to better understand what the coins symbolized ■ Focus on authors and cemeteries about death and money rather than mythological themes ○ 4 characteristics to Charon’s obol ■ Low denomination coin ■ Placed in mouth ■ At time of death ■ To pay the Charon’s fair ○ Aristophanes (Frogs, 405 BCE - Comedy) - 1st characteristic ■ Custom involves 1 coin ■ Fare costs 2 Obols in the comedy but its believed to make fun of 5th cen BCE Athens inflation ■ 5 poets agree with Aristophanes on the traditional fare ○ Leonidas (Sepulchral epigram on Diogenes) - 1st characteristic ■ Regret invoking poem

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■ Diogenes still has too much luggage despite being poor ■ Coin acts as lever on which the poem progresses ○ Ammianus (Poem) - 1st characteristic ■ Hungary for real estate in life but realizes that once n front of Charon, all you take with you is an obol ■ Coin acts as an equalizer (rich and poor equal in death) ○ Antiphanes (Poem) - 1st characteristic ■ Miser who never enjoys life ■ Despite amassing wealth, only an obol parts with him Summary: literary evidence ○ Lucilius (Poem) - 1st characteristic ■ Miser refuses to pay doctor in full and ends up costing his life ■ Upon death is only able to take one coin ○ Propertius (Elegy for Cornelia) - 1st characteristic ■ Toll in this poem is mentioned as (aera) which can be a general term for money ■ Aera can carry the sense of pocket change ■ Ambiguous Latin author bout the number of coins given to Charon ○ Callimachus (Epic) - 2nd characteristic ■ City in Argolid provided special privilege to its people ■ Charon asks for no fair from these inhabitants ○ Juvenal (Satire on Roman noxiousness) - 3rd characteristic ■ Mentions that coin is traditionally placed in the mouth of the deceased ■ Man crushed by marble and he wasn’t able to get a coin in his mouth ■ Coin in this case can be seen as a mark of death that is anticipated and prepared ○ Lucian (Essay on Funerals) - 3rd characteristic, most detailed passage ■ Focus on the timing of coin offerings ■ Satirizes coin in mouth custom as one of many customs and beliefs related to death ■ If no coin is present, Charon would not take them ■ Emphasize on what is widely believed of the custom regarding coins ○ Apuleius (Metamorphoses) - 3rd characteristic, most detailed passage ■ Latest classical Latin passage on Charon’s obol ■ Psyche goes to commit suicide by jumping off a tower to complete a trial for Venus regarding a box of Proserpina’s beauty. However, the tower stops her and gives her advice on another way to reach the underworld other than dying ● The advice involves items that allow for travelling to the underworld and back to the physical world ● Double fair, 1 to bribe Charon into the underworld and the seconds to come back to the real world via Charon ○ All these authors are unanimous in explaining coins for dead as payments for Charon

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■ More things to look at other than Charon’s obol 4 characteristics Low value coins are important whether they’re one or many ■ Symbol of poverty and death ■ Ammianus, Antiphanes and Lucilius make similar points but use rich men Juvenal takes this poverty lower since he has no coin for passage at death For Apuleius Psyche first coin could represent death and the second rebirth ■ Final journey becomes a passage of soul from this world to its rebirth into next Word Viaticum in crucial ■ In Plautus passage is used in specific meaning of fare for the underworld journey ■ Word has general meaning of provisions for a journey ■ Suggests coins for the dead could have served as symbolic provisions of the soul for its journey to the underworld ■ Word warriors into Christian Latin ■ Connection to eucharist, when placed in the mouth it allowed for the soul passage to eternal life ■ Christian deathbed rite has been thought to replace Charon’s obol ■ Latin authors use of “viaticum” could have suggested that coins placed in mouth were a sort of nourishment Importance of Charon;s obol in the mouth to touch the soul in linked to time of placement ■ Distinguishes the burial practice to a rite of passage Propertius mentions that placing a coin marks closing of the doorway between the living and the dead ■ Act after death was to close the mouth of the corpse ■ Coin used to prevent soul from returning to this world? Authors in full agreement in their work that the coin was used to pay Charon for souls passage to the underworld ■ When to consider mythological explanation as practice ● Tone and context of passage ● Callimachus and propertius mention Charon’s obol as humorous ● Lacian and Juvenal use custom as an example of vanity of conventional views of underworld Lucian on funerals ■ Understood as a skeptic ● Epitaphs reflect that poetic views of the afterlife were not widely accepted ● Employ motif of the underworld discounting poet’s view ■ Portrays to his audience that Charon’s obol can’t undo everyone’s final fate ■ In Charon he criticizes gifts for the dead as being impassable ■ Simialr approach in Downward Journey ● Tyrant, Cobbler, Cynic all progress to the underworld but at the

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end they all reach the same end with some losing more than others ● Men already poor in life fare better in death than rich and powerful who have more to lose ○ Apuleius focus on the connection between money and death ■ Tower teaches Psyche that from her trip into the underworld only avarice rules ■ Gods do nothing without being paid and Charon personifies the poverty of the world of the dead ■ As long as Charon is paid he will take her back and forth even if its forbidden ■ Money controls the underworld and the custom of Charon’s obol is a logical response to avaricious death Summary: archaeological evidence ○ Archaeological evidence of coins for the dead has its own focus ○ Little insight on why they were placed ○ Large cemeteries have been systematically excavated and recorded but only a small amount of burials have coins as passage to the underworld ○ Distribution of coins in burials ■ Earliest coins in ancient Greek burials date to the 5th cen BCE ■ Custom with coins continues with Roman presence until the late 5th cen CE when pierced coins are relevant as jewelry ■ High number of coins found in burials but with abundance limits ○ Olynthus - 10.2% of tombs had coin ○ 4th cen BCE hellenized Lucanian population - 4.5% of tombs had coins ○ Comparable with sites at Ampurias, Syracus, Argos and Myrina ○ Coins are popular in Roman period cemeteries ■ Number of tombs with coins caries ● 50% of cremation burials in 1st cen and 2nd cen CE cemetery at Tipasa ● 42.2% in cemetery of 1st cen BCE celtic community of S.Bernado di Ornavasso ● 9% of cremation burials in 1st cen and 2nd cen CE at Ampurias ● 11.3% in 1st cen and 2nd cen CE at York ○ Gaul and Belgium ■ Coins for dead found in 1st cen and 3rd cen CE ■ Flavian data Roman cemetery had coins for 24% of cremations ■ 29% of Roman inhumations of 3rd cen CE Krefeld Gellep in Rheinland have coins ○ 136 burials at Olynthus ■ Almost all bronze, few silver ■ Most were single coins but pairs or groups were also common ■ Most often found placed in mouth and head of skeleton ■ Silver coins are thought to be a “tip” to Charon to ensure safe journey

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Hellenistic period tombs in Kerameikos cemetery in Athens ■ Coins most often found in mouth of deceased ● Sometimes found in hand, loose in grave fill and sometimes in a vessel ■ Bronze was common but gold and silver were present ■ “Ghost money” ■ Gold and silver suggested to have been offered for intrinsic use in other world Poseidona cemetery ■ 1 silver coin and 155 bronze coins (single coins favoured) ■ Variety in abundance of coins within specific graves ■ Funerary ideology of the community suggest that coins appear to be connected with prestige of individual ■ 1 tomb with painted Charon on wall but no coin St.Bernardo di Ornavasso ■ 16 out of 74 tombs with coins contained single bronze, others combined silver and bronze ■ Placement not around the head and found with other valuables ● Suggests symbolic affirmation of social role and prestige 3rd cen BCE there are patterns in coins which differentiate traditions from practices in the classical period Turnacum burials ■ 60% of burials that had coins had more than 1 coin ■ Placement was variable ● Many single coins in and on the head, some on arms and even feet Lankills 4th century cemetery ■ 63% of graves with coins had single coins ■ 58.4% had coins placed elsewhere on body than in and around the head Early 5th cen CE cemetery of Frenouville ■ 15 tombs with coins ■ Single or pairs of coins ■ One tomb had 23 coins ■ Coins commonly found in purse of vessel 5-6th cen CE Theodosian Wall Cemetery at Carthage ■ 19% of graves have coins ■ 32% of these are single coins ■ Only ⅓ of these are associate with the head Cemetery at Carthage ■ 10 graves with large numbers of coins ■ 10 to 153 wrapped or folded in cloth ■ One grave with 4 gold coins and 24 small bronzes Single coins and small groups of coins predominate late antiquity ■ Small series of groups of coins in purses placed at wait of deceased

● Placed at time of interment Bronze coins are the most common but in some Germanic regions coins can vary in silver or gold ○ Single coin in mouth not uncommon in Christian graves ■ Custom severed from classical myth? ○ Patterns and variability in funerary use of coins militates against model of a single custom ■ Charon’s fee unique to classical world ○ Ancient Greek religion custom of giving coins to dead antedates Charon myth ○ Placing currency as provision for dead may antedate coinage ○ Archaic period skeletons from Obbia had “fish coins” in hands, but association of these coins for the dead remains unclear ○ 5th cen CE lexicographer Hesychius’ proposed that coins in the mouth of the deceased is of Persian origin ○ Charon was a foreign and may not have been directly associated with the practice Conclusion ○ Ancient authors offer singith into the connection between money and the underworld ○ Classical Greek theories acknowledge that coinage has both intrinsic and conventional values based on circulation ○ Magical qualities of money since its power is abstract or invisible ○ Coins were a way for the living to touch the “invisible” world of the dead ○ Coins allowed people to communicate with the dead while the door to the other world was still open ○ ○

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