One of the discoverers (James Christy) of the moon Charon named the moon in honor of his wife, Charlene. Not knowing the pronunciation of Charon, he based the pronunciation off of the first half of his wife's name -- Char (prn. Shar) -- making it pronounced Shar-on. The moon has continued to be known by this pronunciation since that day in 1978.
Rory: I am sure this was intentional. Most planets (named after Roman gods and goddesses) have moons that are named after people relating to the planet's namesake (ex: Pluto and Charon, Neptune and Ariel, etc.)
Actually, Ariel is a moon of Uranus not Neptune. Uranus's moon's names are those that were in Shakespearan Plays. Examples: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon, etc. Examples of a few of Neptune's 13 moons are: Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, and Galatea, etc.
Charon does indeed mean ‘fierce brightness’. He was the ferryman in the underworld that carried the dead across the river Acheron (not known as Nyx. There are Archeron, Styx, Lethe, Cocytus, Phlegethon, but no Nyx. Nyx is a goddess alone) but only if they had a silver coin (obolus) under their tongue. If not, they were cursed to wander the banks of the Acheron for 100 years. For this reason, Greek corpses were buried with a coin in their mouths. Charon is the son of Nyx and her brother Erebus, therefore sibling of the Keres, Hemera, Moros and Eros.
― Anonymous User 2/11/2006
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Charon ferried the dead with their silver in their mouths. The river was also called the River Nyx - which is another name.
― Anonymous User 8/17/2005
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