Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University

gestures are sometimes gentle and compassionate,” 147 but de Grummond indicates that Charu(n)
can strike the head of the deceased soul as is shown on the sarcophagus of the Etruscan
magistrate Laris Pulenas. 148
Even if his exact role is ambiguous, his meaning is somewhat easier to define. Charu(n)
is a creature who is part of the transition between the worlds of the living and the dead. He is
liminal, and his monstrous features may be intended to represent his “otherness” and transitional
nature in much the same way as the Gorgon. 149 A further comparison to the Gorgon may be
made in that Charu(n)’s hideous countenance may also be an apotropaic symbol meant to ward
off evil; 150 Charu(n), like the fearsome Gorgon, incorporates the serpent into his physical form.
This may help to explain Charu(n)’s confusing role as guard or enemy. Just as the Gorgon, a
monster and a threat whom Perseus defeated, becomes a protective force, so Charu(n), perhaps
meant as an incarnation of the deadly aspects of the serpent, becomes a tomb guardian. 151
Charu(n) may also be an embodiment of the fear of death, sometimes shown as threatening,
sometimes shown as friendly. 152
Thus while Charu(n)’s iconography seems to be associated with the fearsome aspects of
the serpent as a representative of the afterlife and death, his appearance in art is not so simple.
Like the snake, a creature that moves in an undulating fashion without the aid of legs, Charu(n)
is alien in coloration, form, and physique; he is humanoid, but certainly something other than
human. The snake also possesses such ambiguity and is at once a venomous predator but also a
mild and friendly household guardian 153 much as Charu(n) may menace the dead but also act as a
psychopomp, 154 protector, or a participant in conversation. Like the serpent, Charu(n) is a
147 Richardson 1976, 243.
148 De Grummond 2006a, 215.
149 Lada-Richards (1998, 68) suggests that the liminality and otherness of a mythological figure (Cheiron the centaur
serves as her example) is representative of the ability of that figure to facilitate the transition of a mortal from one
state to another while the “monstrous” character retains its own ambiguous nature.
150 Croon (1955, 13) suggests that the gorgoneion preceded a “fully-formed” Gorgon and that it was intended as a
representation of an underworld goddess meant to fulfill an apotropaic function. Croon’s interpretation of the
gorgoneion’s origins as that of a mask used in ritual dances may suggest similar uses of Charu(n) masks which have
been found in tombs.
151 Howe (1954, 212-4) proposes that the Gorgon was originally “an expression of the terror the lonely wanderer felt
in the beast-haunted night, and though solely of imaginative origin, the head was given this generalized animal-like
form.” She follows this statement with the conclusion that by creating an image of the Gorgon, one could gain
power of it and use it to one’s advantage. A further stage in conquering the fear symbolized by the Gorgon was her
decapitation by Perseus.
152 Ridgway (2000, 313) suggests that Charu(n)’s ugly appearance is a concrete representation that death is frightful.
153 Edelstein and Edelstein 1945, 228-9.
154 De Ruyt 1934, 224.
35