The ORIGIN of the Ferryman: A 30,000 Year old story!

The Ferryman is one of the oldest characters in human history, and his purpose was to take you to the Underworld.

So why does he turn up in so many stories and cultures, and not just Greek Mythology? He has a past that has a huge history, and here we look at some of his myths, and use our understanding of him and his common traits, to see if we can trace him back, back far in time, and probably far longer back than you would first imagine, making him one of the oldest characters in story telling history.

And with the information we discover we can start understanding how our ancestors thought of death.

So welcome to myths of Odin, the Proto Indo Europeans and their Centum and Satem divisions, and the Persians. We discuss bridges, boats, and psycho-pomps, and how our view of death has changed over time. And welcome to the story of the Ferry man.

And rememeber don't pay the ferryman!

Text and Book References include:

Pausians 10.28.2
Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 4.2.5.10
Śvetāsvatara Upaisạd 2.8
Dēnkart 3.182
Maṇḍukaka Upanisad 1.2.7
Frogs (139f), Aristophane
Alcestis 441, Euripides
Yasna 46.10, Gāthic Avesta
Navigation of Saint Brendon
A Second Century Satirist, Lucian
Russian Laments for the Dead
Poetic Edda, Carolyne Larrington, Oxford World Classics
Prose Edda, Anthony Faulkes Trans., Everyman Publishing
Vita Merlini, Geoffrey of Monmouth
De Bello Gothico, Procopius
Vergil's Aeneid, Oxford Press
Mahabharata (Abridged), Penguin Books
India's "Tīrthas": "Crossings" in Sacred Geography, Diana L. Eck, History of Religions , May, 1981, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 323-344
Gods and Men in Vedic Ritualism: Toward a Hierarchy of Resemblance, Brian K. Smith, History of Religions , May, 1985, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 291-307
The Orpheus Myth in North America, A. H. Gayton, The Journal of American Folklore , Jul. - Sep., 1935, Vol. 48, No. 189, pp. 263-293
Lincoln, Bruce, et al. Death, war, and sacrifice: studies in ideology and practice. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1991

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Chapters
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0:00 Introduction
0:58 The Greek Myth of Kharon and Charon, and his personification
5:15 Where did the Greeks think the Ferryman come from?
7:10 What are the common traits of the Ferryman in Greek culture?
10:35 Old Norse stories of the Ferryman
16:30 The Ferryman in Celtic culture
20:16 What does all this mean, and the Two Branches of the Proto Indo Europeans
21:42 The Russian Laments
22:37 The Indian Hymns and Vedic Culture
28:44 Why the difference in the beliefs and doctrines?
31:08 Zarathustra's influence and his names meaning
33:01 The Ferryman's actual name and our view of death
34:02 The Myth of Orpheus
35:20 The Native American Tribes have a story
36:32 Coincide or a 15,000 year old story?
37:22 The true age and meaning of the Ferryman

[Crecganford]

What is your favorite Greek myth or character? Achilles? The Trojan War? The Oracle? Hades?

[vociferonheraldofthewinter]

It seems to me that the Vikings got sick of people having to argue with the ferry man and just buried them with a boat. That's a hell of a workaround to solve an old problem that comes up time after time in the old stories.

[SnibediSnabs]

In Finnish mythology we also have our version of this myth; Tuonen Tytti (the maid of death), a ferrywoman who brings the dead across the river of Tuonela in a raft. In some versions of the myth, she only takes onboard the good and the honorable, and those who have done evil deeds in life must ford/swim across the river (which is described depending on the specific version of the myth as a deep, dark, ice-cold river or a raging rapids of fire and smoke).

In Kalevala, the wiseman Väinämöinen attempts to cross the river to seek the eternal wisdom of the dead by pretending to be dead himself, but the ferrywoman sees through his bluff and tells him to go back to his land and kin, saying that "many are they who have crossed this river, but far fewer make it back."

[DK-MagneticName]

We have had a tradition in our family since the Second Schleswig War in 1864 here in Denmark that when you turn 16 you would get a coin to have on your person at all time except for shover Beach and bed and especially when you leve your home in case something happens you always have the fair for the ferryman and to this day its tradition to carry a coin in your pocket 😁 I like the story and the meaning and its wild that its been in the family so long, the last 3 generations have added a bit to it we have all gotten a mjølner necklace and been told that it's the key for strength and guidance and for him who believes in the norse mytologi, we are a wierd family but we have it great

[mnk]

I mean it's pretty logical for the myth to be very very old. Because what were the first borders? What absolutely separated realms? Rivers. So it makes sense for the ultimate and final border to be a river too.
Now crossing a river yourself is dangerous and unpleasant so you need a ferryman, whether you are a king or a pauper. The rate of Charon is an Obulos, not a fortune, which enforces the whole death as the great equaliser.
And who's the best ferryman? The guy who's been at this job for ages, weathered, experienced and respected, i.e an old man.

[photinodecay]

So now we understand why the ferryman is so old and tired. He's been doing the same monotonous job for at least 15 thousand years!

[QualeQualeson]

Crows used to be considered psychopomp's, or ferrymen if you will.
The following is a true story: I watched a film about crows in history and went to bed. I started dreaming about a man sized crow that came to guide my soul to the afterlife. I was awakened by some very insistent pecking on my kitchen window-board. I got up and went to my kitchen, and there was a large male hooded crow. He acknowledged my presence and flew off to a branch close to the window. I got a walnut and put it on the board. He came back, grabbed the nut and flew off. It was the first, and hitherto last time that I saw him there.

[richardnaiser]

Thank you so much for this amazing information. Nothing brings joy to my life more than a brilliant questioning of why we are here and what might happen after.

[arctic_haze]

If you think about it, Gandalf vs Balrog on the bridge (a scene that Tolkien had in his head long before he started to write LOTR) is definitely influenced by the angels fighting devils on bridges. This puts the Bridge of Khazad Dum in a new light to me, especially as the bridge is actually in a kind of underworld and the very character of Gandalf is clearly Odin influenced.

[AHH-qn]

Hello and thank you. I'm Norwegian and in Norway we had a tradition that the living put myths over the eyes of the dead to pay the ferryman

[EJinSkyrim]

I was going along listening like, "Yeah this story is pretty old." ...And then you hopped the pond and my brain exploded. This and the Cosmic Hunt are, so far, the ones that made me do a mental spit-take at the sheer age of the stories' roots.

"Old Man" indeed. Sheesh. Dude probably ferried the souls of the dead Beringians.

[stynershiner]

My friend's grandmother had a near-death experience years ago and she distinctly recalls herself being near this lake sort of area and this boatsman coming up to get her, and asking her questions. She still remembered this after getting out of her NDE.

[elizabethsullivan]

I've always loved the way the planets have been named after Greek and Roman mythological figures - a big reason why mythology and astronomy have been two of my all time favorite subjects. While talking about Charon I started thinking about the planet Pluto and the moons Charon and Styx and how there was a naming contest for two more recent discovered moons of Pluto, of which the names Nyx (now Nix) and Hydra were chosen. With one moon named Styx, Nyx was a natural (and poetic) choice. 😄👍

One of the lesser talked about Greek mythological figures is Hephaestus, whom I found out about when I was doing an English essay on the Greek God of War, Ares. Hephaestus was married to Aphrodite whom left him for Ares. He was the God of blacksmiths, metalworking, craftsmen, carpenters, artisans, sculptors, and volcanos. He's the Greek counterpart of Vulcan.

[ActualLiteralKyle]

Dude I could not have tapped faster- it makes me smile that you just said you’d be slowing down and doing shorter vids and then put out a baller 40-min Vid on the ferryman!

THANK YOU!!!

[anastasijahabarova]

The moment I heard you say the original pronunciation of Charon, the Ancient Greek ferryman, I realized that this is likely where the Russian word for “to bury the dead” comes from, хоронить (horonyt’), as well as its derivatives of “funeral” (похороны) and “to hide from danger by remaining low” (схоронится). A lot of old Slavic paganism and mythology has ties to Ancient Greek equivalents, so it’s not surprising. What is surprising is that I only just now realized there is no single word in modern English for “to bury the dead” like there is in Russian. I don’t know what this means, if anything, but it’s an interesting difference nonetheless.

[Valdagast]

_“The gates of hell are open night and day;_
_Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:_
_But to return, and view the cheerful skies, _
_In this the task and mighty labor lies.”_

[claudia.k.g.]

Thank you for disentangling this so beautifully. It has always interested me, I was reading world myths and fairy tales as a child, and the similarity between all of them akways struck me. Recently I have revisited the Greek myths over and over again. They are so rich in psychology mixed with roots of far older stories and beliefs. When you said Zarathustra means "He whose cows are old", I had to think immediately of the Odyssee and the island of Helios' cows.

[eldraque]

Been practicing Buddhism for 25 years, never knew yana meant ferryboat, despite reading the Alagaddupama Sutta loads, should have learnt Pali! Thanks again, much appreciated

[hkschubert]

Such a wonderful summary and analysis of the related mythology !!
Thank you !!

[bostonbilly]

I've always known him as Charon, from Greek mythology also from a heavy metal song from king diamond lol. But yeah. Ty creganford for expanding my knowledge 😊❤❤❤