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Charon's obol is an allusive term for the coin placed in or on the mouth〔Neither ancient literary sources nor archaeological finds indicate that the ritual of Charon's obol explains the modern-era custom of placing a pair of coins on the eyes of the deceased, nor is the single coin said to have been placed under the tongue. See "Coins on the eyes?" below.〕 of a dead person before burial. Greek and Latin literary sources specify the coin as an obol, and explain it as a payment or bribe for Charon, the ferryman who conveyed souls across the river that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. Archaeological examples of these coins, of various denominations in practice, have been called "the most famous grave goods from antiquity."〔Ian Morris, ''Death-ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity'' (Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 106 (online. )〕 The custom is primarily associated with the ancient Greeks and Romans, though it is also found in the ancient Near East. In Western Europe, a similar usage of coins in burials occurs in regions inhabited by Celts of the Gallo-Roman, Hispano-Roman and Romano-British cultures, and among the Germanic peoples of late antiquity and the early Christian era, with sporadic examples into the early 20th century. Although archaeology shows that the myth reflects an actual custom, the placement of coins with the dead was neither pervasive nor confined to a single coin in the deceased's mouth.〔Gregory Grabka, "Christian Viaticum: A Study of Its Cultural Background," ''Traditio'' 9 (1953), 1–43, especially p. 8; Susan T. Stevens, "Charon’s Obol and Other Coins in Ancient Funerary Practice," ''Phoenix'' 45 (1991) 215–229.〕 In many burials, inscribed metal-leaf tablets or exonumia take the place of the coin, or gold-foil crosses in the early Christian era. The presence of coins or a coin-hoard in Germanic ship-burials suggests an analogous concept.〔Discussed under "Archaeological evidence".〕 The phrase "Charon’s obol" as used by archaeologists sometimes can be understood as referring to a particular religious rite, but often serves as a kind of shorthand for coinage as grave goods presumed to further the deceased's passage into the afterlife.〔Morris, ''Death-ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity'', p. 106, noting in his skeptical discussion of "Who Pays the Ferryman?" that "coins may have paid the ferryman, but that is not all that they did." See also Keld Grinder-Hansen, "Charon’s Fee in Ancient Greece?" ''Acta Hyperborea'' 3 (1991), p. 215, who goes so far as to assert that "there is very little evidence in favour of a connection between the Charon myth and the death-coin practice", but the point is primarily that the term "Charon’s obol" belongs to the discourse of myth and literature rather than the discipline of archaeology.〕 In Latin, Charon's obol sometimes is called a ''viaticum'', or "sustenance for the journey"; the placement of the coin on the mouth has been explained also as a seal to protect the deceased's soul or to prevent it from returning. ==Terminology== The coin for Charon is conventionally referred to in Greek literature as an ''obolos'' (Greek ὀβολός), one of the basic denominations of ancient Greek coinage, worth one-sixth of a drachma.〔Depending on whether a copper or silver standard was used; see Verne B. Schuman, "The Seven-Obol Drachma of Roman Egypt," ''Classical Philology'' 47 (1952) 214–218; Michael Vickers, "Golden Greece: Relative Values, Minae, and Temple Inventories," ''American Journal of Archaeology'' 94 (1990), p. 613, notes 4 and 6, pointing out at the time of writing that with gold at $368.75 per ounce, an obol would be worth 59 cents (U.S. currency).〕 Among the Greeks, coins in actual burials are sometimes also a danakē (δανάκη) or other relatively small-denomination gold, silver, bronze or copper coin in local use. In Roman literary sources the coin is usually bronze or copper.〔For instance, Propertius 4.11.7–8; Juvenal 3.267; Apuleius, ''Metamorphoses'' 6.18; Ernest Babelon, ''Traité des monnaies grecques et romaines'', vol. 1 (Paris: Leroux, 1901), p. 430.〕 From the 6th to the 4th centuries BC in the Black Sea region, low-value coins depicting arrowheads or dolphins were in use mainly for the purpose of "local exchange and to serve as ‘Charon’s obol.‘"〔Sitta von Reden, "Money, Law and Exchange: Coinage in the Greek Polis," ''Journal of Hellenic Studies'' 117 (1997), p. 159.〕 The payment is sometimes specified with a term for "boat fare" (in Greek ''naulon'', ναῦλον, Latin ''naulum''); "fee for ferrying" (''porthmeion'', πορθμήϊον or πορθμεῖον); or "waterway toll" (Latin ''portorium''). The word ''naulon'' (ναῦλον) is defined by the Christian-era lexicographer Hesychius of Alexandria as the coin put into the mouth of the dead; one of the meanings of ''danakē'' (δανάκη) is given as "the obol for the dead". The Suda defines ''danakē'' as a coin traditionally buried with the dead for paying the ferryman to cross the river Acheron,〔Entry on Δανάκη, ''Suidae Lexicon'', edited by A. Adler (Leipzig 1931) II 5f., as cited by Grabka, "Christian Viaticum," p. 8.〕 and explicates the definition of ''porthmēïon'' (πορθμήϊον) as a ferryman’s fee with a quotation from the poet Callimachus, who notes the custom of carrying the ''porthmēïon'' in the "parched mouths of the dead."〔Hesychius, entry on Ναῦλον, ''Lexicon'', edited by M. Schmidt (Jena 1858–68), III 142: τὸ εἰς τὸ στόμα τῶν νεκρῶν ἐμβαλλόμεν νομισμάτιον; entry on Δανάκη, ''Lexicon'', I 549 (Schmidt): ἐλέγετο δὲ καὶ ὁ τοῖς νεκροῖς διδόμενος ὀβολός; Callimachus, ''Hecale'', fragment 278 in the edition of Rudolf Pfeiffer (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1949), vol. 1, p. 262 (= Schneider frg. 110), with an extensive note (in Latin) on the fare and the supposed exemption for residents of Hermione; ''Suidae Lexicon'', entry on Πορθμήϊον, edited by A. Adler (Leipzig 1935) IV 176, all cited by Grabka, "Christian Viaticum," pp. 8–9.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Charon's obol」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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