Charun

His name was imported from Greek Charon, although it is uncertain whether Etruscans had a native name for a god of the underworld before this. As suggested by alternations in the Etruscan language such as θu "one" changing to θunśna "first", lev "lion" (from Greek leōn) and Apulu (from Greek Apóllōn), words ending in -n after u were disappearing from the language which is why we see his name spelled Xarun and later Xaru. The Etruscan Charun was fundamentally different from his Greek counterpart. Guarding the entry to the underworld, he is depicted with a hammer (his religious symbol) and is shown with pointed ears, snakes around his arms, and a blueish coloration symbolizing the decay of death. In some images, he has enormous wings. He is also depicted as a large creature with snake-like hair, a vulture's hooked nose, large tusks like a boar, heavy brow ridges, large lips, fiery eyes, pointed ears a black beard, enormous wings, discolored (pale cream, bluish or greyish) skin, and snakes around his arm. Larissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling have this to say about Charun: "Many scenes feature the two purely Etruscan underworld demons, Vanth and Charu, whose job is not to punish the dead but rather to escort them to their final destination." However, there are at least two examples, on the sarcophagus of Laris Pulenas as well as a red figure stamnos from Orbetello, that do illustrate Charun in a menacing fashion.