Cerberus

The Hound of the Underworld

Cerberus was the enormous hound who guarded the entrance to the Underworld. Today he is almost always shown with three heads, but ancient writers did not agree about the number. Hesiod gave him an incredible fifty heads, while artists often chose two or three because that was much easier to fit onto a vase! Cerberus could also have snakes growing from his body and a serpent for a tail. His parents were Typhon and Echidna, which made him brother to several other famous monsters. His job was simple: let the dead enter the Underworld, but do not let them leave again.

Cerberus appears in the final Labour of Heracles. King Eurystheus orders the hero to travel into the Underworld and bring the terrifying dog back alive. Hades agrees, but only if Heracles can overpower Cerberus without using ordinary weapons. Heracles wrestles the enormous hound, controls him and carries him all the way to the surface. Eurystheus is so frightened when he sees Cerberus that ancient artists sometimes show the king hiding inside a giant storage jar. After proving he has completed the task, Heracles returns Cerberus safely to Hades. I think that is quite important. Cerberus is not killed because he is not really a villain. He is a guard dog protecting his home.

Other heroes find less wrestly ways to get past him. Orpheus charms Cerberus with beautiful music when he travels below looking for Eurydice. In the Roman story of Aeneas, a priestess gives the dog a drugged honey cake so he falls asleep. Cerberus became such a famous guardian that the phrase ‘a sop to Cerberus’ later meant giving something to calm a difficult guard. Modern stories sometimes make him a mindless monster, but the ancient idea is more fun to me. He is frightening because he guards the one doorway almost nobody is supposed to cross twice. If Hades wanted the ultimate ‘KEEP OUT’ sign, three enormous barking heads were probably quite effective.

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