Passage
From earlier this year, a semi-quick environment. I had Styx in mind while painting it.
For some reason, and quite unfittingly, I was thinking of Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead, in particular the one with Charon arguing with Menippus over the fare. So that could be them sulking on that boat. XD
That dialogue might be worth reading for some 2nd century CE lolz, although I think the English translation is weak and stilted. (I wonder why that is almost always the case with translations from ancient Greek. I have the nasty suspicion it has to do with pompous self-important translatros who can't get over the fact they know Greek in the first place!)
DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD
XXII
Charon. Menippus. Hermes
Ch. Your fare, you rascal.
Me. Bawl away, Charon, if it gives you any pleasure.
Ch. I brought you across: give me my fare.
Me. I can't, if I haven't got it.
Ch. And who is so poor that he has not got a penny?
Me. I for one; I don't know who else.
Ch. Pay: or, by Pluto, I'll strangle you.
Me. And I'll crack your skull with this stick.
Ch. So you are to come all that way for nothing?
Me. Let Hermes pay for me: he put me on board.
Her. I dare say! A fine time I shall have of it, if I am to pay for the shades.
Ch. I'm not going to let you off.
Me. You can haul up your ship and wait, for all I care. If I have not got the money, I can't pay you, can I?
Ch. You knew you ought to bring it?
Me. I knew that: but I hadn't got it. What would you have? I ought not to have died, I suppose?
Ch. So you are to have the distinction of being the only passenger that ever crossed gratis?
Me. Oh, come now: gratis! I took an oar, and I baled; and I didn't cry, which is more than can be said for any of the others.
Ch. That's neither here nor there. I must have my penny; it's only righ
Me. Well, you had better take me back again to life.
Ch. Yes, and get a thrashing from Aeacus for my pains! I like that.
Me. Well, don't bother me.
Ch. Let me see what you have got in that wallet.
Me. Beans: have some?--and a Hecate's supper.
Ch. Where did you pick up this Cynic, Hermes? The noise he made on the crossing, too! laughing and jeering at all the rest, and singing, when every one else was at his lamentations.
Her. Ah, Charon, you little know your passenger! Independence, every inch of him: he cares for no one. ’Tis Menippus.
Ch. Wait till I catch you---
Me. Precisely; I'll wait--till you catch me again.