Cerberus featured in many works of ancient Greek and Roman literature and in works of both ancient and modern art and architecture, although, the depiction and background surrounding Cerberus often differed across various works by different authors of the era. The most notable difference is the number of its heads: Most sources describe or depict three heads; others show it with two or even just one; a smaller number of sources show a variable number, sometimes as many as 50.
Etymology
The name "Cerberus" is a
Latinised version of the Greek
Kerberos, which may be related to the
Sanskrit word सर्वरा "sarvarā", used as an epithet of one of the dogs of
Yama, from a
Proto-Indo-European word *ḱerberos, meaning "spotted"
[5] (This etymology suffers from the fact that it includes a reconstructed *b, which is extremely rare in Proto-Indo-European. Yet according to
Pokorny it is well distributed, with additional apparent cognates in Slavic, British and Lithuanian).
[6] The use of a dog is uncertain,
[7][8] although mythologists have speculated that the association was first made in the city of Trikarenos in Phliasia.
[9]
Cerberus is said to be the sibling of the
Lernaean Hydra, the
Nemean Lion, the
Sphinx, the
Ladon, and the
Chimera.
"Cerberus" is generally pronounced in English with a soft C as in cell, even though the ancient pronunciation, in both Greek and Latin was with a hard C as in cat.
Cerberus was the offspring of
Echidna, a hybrid half-woman and half-serpent, and
Typhon, a fire-breathing giant whom even the Olympian gods feared. Its brother is
Orthrus, always depicted as a two-headed
hellhound.
[10] The common depiction of Cerberus in Greek mythology and art is as having three heads, a mane of live serpents (similar to
Medusa's hair) and a snake's tail. In most works the three-heads each respectively see and represent the past, the present, and the future, while other sources suggest the heads represent birth, youth, and old age.
[11] Each of Cerberus' heads is said to have an appetite only for live meat and thus allow the spirits of the dead to freely enter the underworld, but allow none to leave.
[12] Cerberus was always employed as Hades' loyal watchdog, and guarded the gates that granted access and exit to the underworld (also called Hades).
[13]
The Twelfth Labor of Heracles
The task of capturing Cerberus alive, without using weapons, was the final labour assigned to
Heracles (Hercules) by
King Eurystheus, in recompense for the killing of his own children by
Megara after he was driven insane by
Hera, and therefore was the most dangerous and difficult. In the traditional version, Heracles would not have been required to capture Cerberus, however Eurystheus discounted the completion of two of
the tasks as Heracles had received assistance.
After having been given the task, Heracles went to
Eleusis to be initiated in the
Eleusinian Mysteries so that he could learn how to enter and exit the underworld alive, and in passing absolve himself for killing centaurs. He found the entrance to the underworld at
Tanaerum, and
Athena and
Hermes helped him to traverse the entrance in each direction. He passed
Charon with Hestia's assistance and his own heavy and fierce frowning.
Whilst in the underworld, Heracles met
Theseus and
Pirithous. The two companions had been imprisoned by Hades for attempting to kidnap
Persephone. One tradition tells of snakes coiling around their legs then turning into stone; another that Hades feigned hospitality and prepared a feast inviting them to sit. They unknowingly sat in chairs of forgetfulness and were permanently ensnared. When Heracles had pulled Theseus first from his chair, some of his thigh stuck to it (this explains the supposedly lean thighs of Athenians), but the earth shook at the attempt to liberate Pirithous, whose desire to have the wife of a god for himself was so insulting he was doomed to stay behind.
Heracles found
Hades and asked permission to bring Cerberus to the surface, which Hades agreed to if Heracles could overpower the beast without using weapons. Heracles was able to overpower Cerberus and proceeded to sling the beast over his back, dragging it out of the underworld through a cavern entrance in the
Peloponnese and bringing it to Eurystheus. The king was so frightened of the beast that he jumped into a
pithos, and asked Heracles to return it to the underworld in return for releasing him from his labors
