Cerberus

He was the offspring of the monsters Echidna and Typhon, and was usually described as having three heads, a serpent for a tail, and snakes protruding from his body.

[8] Lincoln notes a similarity between Cerberus and the Norse mythological dog Garmr, relating both names to a Proto-Indo-European root *ger- "to growl" (perhaps with the suffixes -*m/*b and -*r).

An etymology given by Servius (the late-fourth-century commentator on Virgil)—but rejected by Ogden—derives Cerberus from the Greek word creoboros meaning "flesh-devouring".

His father was the multi snake-footed Typhon,[11] and Cerberus was the brother of three other multi-headed monsters, the multi-snake-headed Lernaean Hydra; Orthrus, the two-headed dog that guarded the Cattle of Geryon; and the Chimera, who had three heads: that of a lion, a goat, and a snake.

[18] On one of the two earliest depictions (c. 590–580 BC), a Corinthian cup from Argos (see below), now lost, Cerberus was shown as a normal single-headed dog.

In the literary record, the first certain indication of Cerberus' serpentine nature comes from the rationalized account of Hecataeus of Miletus (fl.

[32] Cerberus ate raw flesh (according to Hesiod),[33] had eyes which flashed fire (according to Euphorion), a three-tongued mouth (according to Horace), and acute hearing (according to Seneca).

According to Diodorus, Heracles went to Athens, where Musaeus, the son of Orpheus, was in charge of the initiation rites,[41] while according to Apollodorus, he went to Eumolpus at Eleusis.

[70] The geographer Strabo (63/64 BC – c. AD 24) reports that "according to the myth writers" Cerberus was brought up at Tainaron,[71] the same place where Euripides has Heracles enter the underworld.

[73] The geographer Pausanias tells us that there was a temple at Troezen with "altars to the gods said to rule under the earth", where it was said that, in addition to Cerberus being "dragged" up by Heracles, Semele was supposed to have been brought up out of the underworld by Dionysus.

[74] Another tradition had Cerberus brought up at Heraclea Pontica (the same place which Xenophon had earlier associated with Heracles' descent) and the cause of the poisonous plant aconite which grew there in abundance.

[94] However the early-sixth-century BC-lost Corinthian cup from Argos, which showed a single head, and snakes growing out from many places on his body,[95] was possibly influenced by Stesichorus' poem.

[96] The mid-sixth-century BC cup from Laconia gives Cerberus three heads and a snake tail, which eventually becomes the standard representation.

[108] Euphorion of Chalcis (3rd century BC) describes Cerberus as having multiple snake tails, and eyes that flashed, like sparks from a blacksmith's forge, or the volcanic Mount Etna.

[110] According to Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC), the capture of Cerberus was the eleventh of Heracles' labors, the twelfth and last being stealing the Apples of the Hesperides.

[111] Diodorus says that Heracles thought it best to first go to Athens to take part in the Eleusinian Mysteries, "Musaeus, the son of Orpheus, being at that time in charge of the initiatory rites", after which, he entered into the underworld "welcomed like a brother by Persephone", and "receiving the dog Cerberus in chains he carried him away to the amazement of all and exhibited him to men."

[113] In his Georgics, Virgil refers to Cerberus, his "triple jaws agape" being tamed by Orpheus' playing his lyre.

In an apparently unique version of the story, related by the sixth-century AD Pseudo-Nonnus, Heracles descended into Hades to abduct Persephone, and killed Cerberus on his way back up.

One of the two earliest depictions, a Corinthian cup (c. 590–580 BC) from Argos (now lost),[125] shows a naked Heracles, with quiver on his back and bow in his right hand, striding left, accompanied by Hermes.

The other earliest depiction, a relief pithos fragment from Crete (c. 590–570 BC), is thought to show a single lion-headed Cerberus with a snake (open-mouthed) over his back being led to the right.

[126] A mid-sixth-century BC Laconian cup by the Hunt Painter adds several new features to the scene which also become common in later works: three heads, a snake tail, Cerberus' chain and Heracles' club.

[134] Snakes are also often shown rising from various parts of his body including snout, head, neck, back, ankles, and paws.

Two Attic amphoras from Vulci, one (c. 530–515 BC) by the Bucci Painter (Munich 1493),[135] the other (c. 525–510 BC) by the Andokides painter (Louvre F204),[136] in addition to the usual two heads and snake tail, show Cerberus with a mane down his necks and back, another typical Cerberian feature of Attic vase painting.

[142] At least as early as the 6th century BC, some ancient writers attempted to explain away various fantastical features of Greek mythology;[143] included in these are various rationalized accounts of the Cerberus story.

[151] Later, the mythographer Fulgentius, allegorizes Cerberus' three heads as representing the three origins of human strife: "nature, cause, and accident", and (drawing on the same flesh-devouring etymology as Servius) as symbolizing "the three ages—infancy, youth, old age, at which death enters the world.

"[152] The Byzantine historian and bishop Eusebius wrote that Cerberus was represented with three heads, because the positions of the sun above the earth are three—rising, midday, and setting.

[154] The Second Vatican Mythographer repeats (nearly word for word) what Fulgentius had to say about Cerberus,[155] while the Third Vatican Mythographer, in another very similar passage to Fugentius', says (more specifically than Fugentius), that for "the philosophers" Cerberus represented hatred, his three heads symbolizing the three kinds of human hatred: natural, causal, and casual (i.e.

[156] The Second and Third Vatican Mythographers, note that the three brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades each have tripartite insignia, associating Hades' three-headed Cerberus, with Zeus' three-forked thunderbolt, and Poseidon's three-pronged trident, while the Third Vatican Mythographer adds that "some philosophers think of Cerberus as the tripartite earth: Asia, Africa, and Europe.

[163] The Serbian hard rock band Kerber, formed in 1981 by members Goran Šepa, Tomislav Nikolić and Branislav Božinović, is named after Cerberus.

[164] In 1988 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed Kerberos, a computer-network authentication protocol, named after Cerberus.