 Although Charon is usually a lone figure in depictions from both antiquity and the modern era, there is some slight evidence that his ship might be furnished with oarsmen.A fragment of 6th century BC pottery has been interpreted as Charon sitting in the stern as steersman of a boat fitted with ten pairs of oars and rowed by "eidola" (εἴδωλα), shades of the dead.A reference in Lucian seems also to imply that the shades might row the boat.