DEMONOLOGY "CERBERUS"

Cerberus guarding the gates of Hades

Cerberus (Kerberos) 

Triple-headed dog or doglike

creature who guards the entrance to Hades, the Greek

underworld. Not originally a “demonic” creature, Cerberus

became the model for the Hellhounds of the DEVIL

and other BLACK DOGS in folklore.

In classical myth, Cerberus is the offspring of Typhon,

a dragon and SERPENT-shaped monster associated

with wind and volcanic eruptions. Typhon fathered many

of the beasts of Greek legend, including Echidna, a halfwoman,

half-serpent. Cerberus lives in a den on one side

of the river Styx that separates the land of the living from

the land of the dead. There, he greets the shades of the

newly dead as they are ferried across the river by Charon.

Cerberus is unpredictable in his friendliness or hostility;

therefore, the dead are buried with honey cake offerings

for the shades to give him, which guarantee his

friendliness.

As gatekeeper to the underworld, Cerberus also prevents

shades from escaping. He fi gures in numerous

myths of descent to the underworld, including the labors

of Hercules and Orpheus’ foiled rescue attempt of his

lover, Eurydice.

In Homeric poems, Cerberus is “the dog.” Hades gives

Hercules permission to take him up from the river Acheron

provided he can quell the beast without weapons.

Hercules descends accompanied by Mercury and Minerva,

wrestles the dog into submission, and takes him

to Eurystheus, king of Tiryns. Saliva drips from Cerberus

and creates the poison aconite.

Hesiod, a Greek poet ca. the eighth century B.C.E.,

was the fi rst writer known to have called Cerberus by a

proper name. Hesiod described the beast as having 50

heads.

By the time of the Roman poets, Cerberus had evolved

into a three-headed dog with a dragon’s neck and tail and

serpent’s heads along his back. Virgil (70–19 B.C.E.) provided

the most detailed description of Cerberus in book

6 of the Aeneid, describing the underworld journey of

Aeneas:

Grim Cerberus, who soon began to rear

His crested snakes, and arm’d his bristling hair.

The prudent Sibyl had before prepar’d

A sop, in honey steep’d, to charm the guard;

Which, mix’d with pow’rful drugs, she cast before

His greedy grinning jaws, just op’d to roar.

With three enormous mouths he gapes; and straight,

With hunger press’d, devours the pleasing bait.

Long draughts of sleep his monstrous limbs enslave;

He reels, and, falling, fi lls the spacious cave.

The keeper charm’d, the chief without delay

Pass’d on, and took th’ irremeable way.