Greek Obol

About Greek Obol

A small silver coin worth one sixth of a drachma. The obol was the daily wage of a rower in the Athenian navy. The dead were buried with an obol in their mouth to pay Charon, the ferryman who carried souls across the River Styx. Without the obol, souls wandered the banks of the Styx for a hundred years. The phrase obolus refers to a trivial amount of money.