Charon and the Crossing: Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Transformations of a Myth (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1985).

ISBN: 0-8387-5061-3

Jacket Copy:

Charon and the Crossing is the first comprehensive critical study of the figure of the underworld boatman Charon as it is found in the literary tradition from Classical Antiquity through the Italian Renaissance and early Baroque period. The tradition of the underworld crossing embraces a variety of genres and writers both major and minor.

Among the Greeks, the crossing figures in epic poetry, including the Iliad and the Odyssey (although the boatman is lacking in Homer); achieves dramatic representation in Aeschylus, Euripides, and Aristophanes; undergoes modification by the Hellenistic poets, especially in the fictional epitaphs composed by the epigrammatists; and then comes to renewed life in Lucian's dialogues.

For the Latins, Virgil and Seneca provide patterns of imitation, as do Lucan (scenes of evocation) and Apuleius (allegorical fable and prose narrative).

After discussing in depth the variety of classical models, the author turns his attention to the expanding generic categories of Italian literature. Under the general heading of epic, for example, he investigates Charon's development in sacred poems, allegorical-didactic works, Christian epic, classical epic, chivalric romance, mock-heroic poems, and mythological epic. The investigation of Charon's transformations continues, in similar fashion, for a variety of dramatic, lyric, and prose forms, ranging in date from the thirteenth to the mid-seventeenth century. Those who emulate the ancients include writers of the stature of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Salutati, Pontano, Folengo, and Marino.

Providing close readings of these and other authors, this book traces the myth of an afterlife voyage by boat, with the aim of furnishing a detailed history of a literary convention as it is subjected to various forces of change, including genre. The method of analysis is a combination of literary history, structuralism, and aesthetic criticism. The author breaks the initial aspect of the descent myth into basic units and then analyzes the aesthetic restructuring of the variable attributes of Charon. The focus is on the way different writers develop particular units and on the modifications undergone by the ferryman as his role is adapted to new forms or expanded in traditional stories.

The world-wide cultural significance of the concept of an afterlife boatman, traced in the introduction, is noteworthy. In Greek literature alone, the encounter with Charon is an aspect of many mythic descents, including those of Theseus, Herakles, Dionysos, Alcestis, Orpheus, Persephone, and Psyche. The limits and potentialities of humanity are perhaps nowhere more sharply defined than at the moment of crossing, a myth central to our poetic imagination. When poets throughout the centuries have dealt with eschatological concerns, with fate, death, and an afterlife existence, they have availed themselves countless times of no less a figure than Charon, the ferryman of Hades.

SUMMARY OF REVIEWS OF CHARON AND THE CROSSING

Thomas G. Bergin, Annali d'Italianistica, 3 (1985), 187-188.

"Terpening's survey is admirably organized . . . And simply as a chronological compilation, Terpening's contribution is valuable. But he has more to offer. His commentary, in grace of an engaging style and a never flagging interest in his subject, makes for lively reading. . . . Charon and the Crossing provides as much enjoyment as instruction, which is saying a lot."


N. B. Palmer, Choice (June 1985), p. 1488.

"Terpening, in this excellent work, a comprehensive critical analysis of the ancient figure Charon, traces the continuity and development of the infernal boatman from the earliest classical references to his later appearances in Italian literature from Dante through the mid-17th century. [. . .] Particularly enlightening is the conclusion, which discusses the fascination the ferryman has held for many different authors. [. . .] Excellent, exhaustive detail, notes, and bibliography."


Helen King, The Classical Review, 36, No. 2 (1986), pp. 355-356.

"The binding thread throughout is the opposition between imitation and innovation, tradition and novelty, myth and creation. T. examines changes in the portrayal of Charon in order to discover what is intrinsic to his position as ferryman between worlds, and the range of possibilities which each genre opens up for the writer. [. . .] As one would expect, T. is at his best in the sections on Italian literature of the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries . . ."


John M. Steadman, Renaissance Quarterly, 39, No. 3 (Autumn 1986), pp. 533-535.

Terpening combines "the methods of literary history, genre criticism, and structural analysis." "Combining detail with breadth, this learned and fascinating study should be valuable for students of both classical and Renaissance literature."


The Key Reporter (Spring 1986), p. 6"

Terpening's book is an exhaustive literary study of only one of the ministers of Hades, the famous ferryman, in Greek, Roman, and later Italian sources."


Robert P. Sonkowsky, Religious Studies Review, 12, No. 2 (April 1986), p. 162.

"An exhaustive canvassing of literary references to, and uses of, the famous ferryman . . . [H]e discusses, very eloquently, the basic human appeal of the mystery of the crossing."


B. Basile, Lingua e Stile, 21 (1986), pp. 611-12.

"Ma come personaggio', con connotati prima ricorrenti--dal 'Charun' etrusco al 'Charon' di Virgilio--e poi variati da generi letterari diversi che si appropriano di questo fantasma, terribile o comico, a seconda delle funzioni narrative prescelte, diviene, nel tempo, solo il segno di credenze religiose prima, di una topica letteraria poi, diluita fino al metaforismo e all'allegorismo nel tardo Rinascimento. . . . Terpening ha ricostruito le tappe di questa vicenda con puntigliosa sistematicità. Tra Omero e Marino non c'è autore della letteratura di un qualche peso e qualità compromesso con Caronte che non entri nello schedario di questa monografia . . . . Già nella tradizione antica, infatti, il traghettore d'anime era evocato da vari registri antitetici, da quello rituale all'epos di Virgilio, dal pathos di Lucano, alle ironie lucianesche. Ma se questi toni perlustrati con dotti excursus (resi piacevoli dal recupero di un'iconografia vascolare greco-etrusca di gran fascino), erano, nel settore classico, per così dire, prevedibili, divengono preziosi rileggendovi accanto nel rapido, ma intelligente découpage dello studioso, la singolare antologia italiana estesa fra Dante e Giordano Bruno, passando per Fazio degli Uberti, gli Intermezzi di corte, Petrarca, Folengo e Anton Francesco Doni."


Gustavo Costa, Comparative Literature, 40, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 174-76.

"Contemporary specialists in various fields have proved to be very sensitive to the problem of tradition. . . . Since tradition goes hand in hand with history, we should not be surprised to know that, after decades of neglect, history is making a powerful comeback in literary study,' . . . This new kind of history draws inspiration from a variety of other disciplines, among which anthropology seems to have a privileged status. Terpening's book is a case in point of this recent trend in literary criticism." "Terpening's book should be particularly appealing to specialists in comparative literature inasmuch as it compares Greek, Latin, and Italian literary works dealing with the underworld crossing, a mythological episode of significance to writers from Homer to Marino and beyond,' as well as with the ever-changing image of the chthonian ferryman. Terpening is interested not so much in the archetypal aspect of the descent myth as in the different aesthetic motivations that made writers treat the legend freely."


Elizabeth Bartolo, Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 105-106.

"The main merit of the research is the attentive reading of all the sources: a vast body of material with which Professor Terpening is obviously well acquainted. His descriptions and analyses are punctuated by moments of insight; even minute oscillations in the details of Charon's varied roles are noted (see, e.g., the reading of librettist Striggio's Charon, p. 195). . . . Charon and the Crossing is well worth reading for its fascinating subject and for its author's skill in handling the immense corpus."


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