hich darts down upon its
prey, or a winged horseman who fastens his victims to the saddle and
bears them away to the realms of the dead.

See J.A. Ambrosch, _De Charonte Etrusco_ (1837), a learned and
exhaustive monograph; B. Schmidt, _Volksleben der Neugriechen_
(1871), i. 222-251; O. Waser, _Charon, Charun, Charos,
mythologisch-archaologische Monographie_ (1898); S. Rocco, "Sull'
origine del Mito di Caronte," in _Rivista di storia antica_, ii.
(1897), who considers Charon to be an old name for the sun-god Helios
embarking during the night for the East.

CHARONDAS, a celebrated lawgiver of Catina in Sicily. His date is
uncertain. Some make him a pupil of Pythagoras (c. 580-504 B.C.); but
all that can be said is that he was earlier than Anaxilaus of Rhegium
(494-476), since his laws were in use amongst the Rhegians until they
were abolished by that tyrant. His laws, originally written in verse,
were adopted by the other Chalcidic colonies in Sicily and Italy.
According to Aristotle there was nothing special about these laws,
except that Charondas introduced actions for perjury; but he speaks
highly of the precision with which they were drawn up (_Politics_, ii.
12). The story that Charondas killed himself because he entered the
public assembly wearing a sword, which was a violation of his own law,
is also told of Diocles and Zaleucus (Diod. Sic. xii. 11-19). The
fragments of laws attributed to him by Stobaeus and Diodorus are of late
(neo-Pythagorean) origin.

See Bentley, _On Phalaris_, which (according to B. Niese s.v. in
Pauly, _Realencyclopadie_) contains what is even now the best account
of Charondas; A. Holm, _Geschichte Siciliens_, i.; F.D. Gerlach,
_Zaleukos, Charondas, und Pythagoras_ (1858); also art. GREEK LAW.

CHARPENTIER, FRANCOIS (1620-1702), French archaeologist and man of
letters, was born in Paris on the 15th of February 1620. He was intended
for the bar, but was employed by Colbert, who had determined on the
foundation of a French East India Company, to draw up an explanatory
account of the project for Louis XIV. Charpentier regarded as absurd the
use of Latin in monumental inscriptions, and to him was entrusted the
task of supplying the paintings of Lebrun in the Versailles Gallery with
appropriate legends. His verses were so indifferent that they had to be
replaced by others, the work of Racine and Boileau, both enemies of his.
Charpentier in his _Excellence de