A Distant sound of water rippling A faint disturbance That moves the foggy air From the caverns that rise before me A shadow dances through the murk As one who dares To traverse these waters I too must pay to cross these shores
A dark procession of orderly souls One by one they board the sacred boat A journey far across those whirlpools Beyond the reach of Apollo's light Waters as filthy as the old man himself His beard and clothes reek of ages old
But sail upon the wind of lamentation My friends, and about your head row With your hands rapid stroke In conveyance of the dead (Aeschylus, Seven against Thebes)
I see him there at the oars Of his little boat in the lake The Ferryman of the Dead, Rharon With his hand upon the oar And he calls me now "What keeps you? Hurry!" (Euripides, Alceslis)