Charon transported the spirits over the marsh of Acheron and across the River Styx to Hades. The heights of the cavern glow bright orange-red with the flames of Hades beyond the far shore. The air is clammy and stiffling, approaching the great heat inside the earth... But the lost souls sit in Charon's boat in resigned apprehension and chilled terror. The wings of the Furies hovering above churn up the waters. Every soul had to pay Charon one obol for their crossing, hence the custom of placing coins in the mouth or upon the eyes at burial.

In Aristophanes' Frogs and Euripides' Alcestis, Charon is a miserable old man. In Virgil's Aeneid, he is a winged demon with snakes in his hair. When he refused Heracles access to the Underworld, Heracles beat him into submission, and was able to enter. But as punishment for allowing a living being into Hades, Pluto placed Charon in chains for one year.