Charon is
the ferryman of Hades, who transports souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and
Acheron that divide the world of the living from the world of the dead. Dante is keen to find
out more about the souls that Charon is herding aboard his boat, but the ferryman tells him to
leave. As Dante is still alive he doesn't belong there.
However, Virgil then
intervenes. He tells Charon "Thus it is willed there, where what is willed can be
done." In a very roundabout way Virgil is referring to Heaven. It is there that Dante's
journey to Hades has been decreed, and so he must be allowed to continue. Virgil tells Dante
that he should take comfort in Charon's initial refusal to take him to Hades as this shows that
his spirit has not been condemned.
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