Charon
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Charon. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
ka'ron, in classical mythology, the ferryman whose duty it was to transport the souls of the dead over the rivers of the lower world. Charon was the son of Erebus and Nox. He is described as an old man, gloomy and sad of countenance, with a matted beard and squalid clothing. Lucian, a Greek writer of the second century, in his Dialogues of the Dead, represents the souls of the dead as offering Charon excuses for delaying their passage across the stream from which there is no return. In Ben Jonson's tragedy, Catiline, so many souls are represented as seeking passage at one time in Charon's boat that The rugged Charon fainted, And asked a navy rather than a boat, To ferry over the sad world that came. Charon is represented by some writers as bearing the souls first over the Acheron, then over the Cocytus, and lastly over the Styx. In the sixth book of the Aeneid, Aeneas descends to the lower world with his guide, and finds Charon on the shores of the river Acheron, where it empties into the Cocytus. Virgil does not keep the rivers distinct, however, for Aeneas is taken across the "Stygian flood" in Charon's boat. Charon's fee was a small coin--an obolus or a danace which, at the time of burial, was placed in the mouth of the deceased. There Charon stands, who rules the dreary coasts; A sordid god; down from his hoary chin A length of beard descends, uncomb'd, unclean; His eyes like hollow furnaces on fire; A girdle foul with grease binds his obscene attire. He spreads his canvas, with his pole he steers; The freights of flitting ghosts in his thin bottom bears. He look'd in years, yet in his years were seen A youthful vigor, an autumnal green.--Virgil.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the ferryman who conducted the souls of the departed in a boat across the Stygian lake to receive judgment from Heacus, Radamanthus, and Minos, the judges of the infernal regions. He received an obolus from every passenger, for which reason that piece of money was placed in the mouths of the dead. He was said to be the son of Erebus and Night. GUSTAVE,
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A god of the infernal regions, son of Nox and Erebus, who conducted the souls of the dead in a boat over the rivers Styx and Acheron .
What Has Changed in the Last Century
As mythology, these entries still stand: Charon is son of Erebus and Night, ferrying the dead for the obol placed in their mouths, and Aiton's 1910 note that the sources disagree over whether the river is Acheron or Styx remains the standard observation. What has moved is archaeology and burial statistics: excavated Greek and Roman graves show the "Charon's obol" was far from universal, and coins turn up in the hand or on the eyes as often as in the mouth. The name has also acquired a wholly new referent since these accounts "Charon" is now best known as Pluto's largest moon, found by James Christy in 1978 and photographed close up by the New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015.
Written for this edition, 2026.