Editing Charon (section)

==Name origins==
The name Charon is most often explained as a [[proper noun]] from {{lang|grc|χάρων}} ({{transliteration|grc|charon}}), a poetic form of {{lang|grc|χαρωπός}} ({{transliteration|grc|charopós}}) 'of keen gaze', referring either to fierce, flashing, or feverish eyes, or to eyes of a bluish-grey color. The word may be a euphemism for death.<ref>Liddell and Scott, ''[[A Greek-English Lexicon]]'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1843, 1985 printing), entries on χαροπός and χάρων, pp. 1980–1981; ''Brill's New Pauly'' (Leiden and Boston 2003), vol. 3, entry on "Charon", pp. 202–203.</ref> Flashing eyes may indicate the anger or irascibility of Charon as he is often characterized in literature, but the etymology is not certain. The ancient historian [[Diodorus Siculus]] thought that the ferryman and his name had been imported from [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]].<ref>Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, ''"Reading" Greek Death'' (Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 359 [https://books.google.com/books?id=WBmyTsFEHEUC&dq=%22flashing+eyes%22+inauthor:sourvinou-Inwood&pg=PA359 online] and p. 390 [https://books.google.com/books?id=WBmyTsFEHEUC&dq=%22Charon%27s+name+is+problematic%22&pg=PA390 online.]</ref> Charon is first attested in the now fragmentary Greek epic poem [[Minyas (poem)|''Minyas'']], which includes a description of a descent to the underworld and possibly dates back to the 6th century BC.<ref>Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, Charon (1), ''Oxford Classical Dictionary'', 1995, Published online: 7 March 2016
[https://oxfordre.com/classics/abstract/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-1527?sid=oup:orr&genre=book&title=‘Reading’%20Greek%20Death&aulast=Sourvinou-Inwood&date=1995] (accessed 28 September 2020)</ref>