User:Paul August/Cerberus

Cerberus

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Resolve problem

• Re this edit

• See: Periclymenus:

"He was killed by Herakles at Pylos, although he tried to escape in the form of an eagle."

• Homer, Iliad 5.395–397:

And so suffered monstrous Hades even as the rest a bitter arrow, when this same man, the son of Zeus that beareth the aegis, smote him in Pylos amid the dead

τλῆ δ᾽ Ἀΐδης ἐν τοῖσι πελώριος ὠκὺν ὀϊστόν,

εὖτέ μιν ωὐτὸς ἀνὴρ υἱὸς Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο

ἐν Πύλῳ ἐν νεκύεσσι βαλὼν ὀδύνῃσιν ἔδωκεν:

• Ogden 213a

p. 110

”There were two broad traditions [of how Heracles got Cerberus]: either Heracles had to fight Hades for him, or Hades gave Heracles Cerberus to take away on condition that he could first master him. Homer knew the tradition that Heracles fought Hades, with the ‘’Iliad’’ telling that Heracles had contrived to shoot an arrow through Hades’ shoulder ‘in Pylos / at the Gate [sc. of the [cont.]

p. 111:

underworld]’²²⁴

²²⁴ Homer ‘’Iliad’’ 5. 395–7, ἐν Πύλῳ, with schol. and Kirk 1990 ad loc.; cf. Homer ‘’Iliad’’8. 367–8, where Hades is himself described as πυλάρταο, ‘gate-warden’. Panyassis F26 West also spoke of ‘Elian Hades’ being shot by Heracles.

• Kirk [discussing the incident of Heracles' wounding of Hades]:

p. 102

The scholia, drawing on earlier discussions e.g. by local historians of the Argolid, offered a variety of explanations: (i) the reference is to Herakles' attack on the Pylians, either (a) for supporting Orkhomenos against Thebes (T on 11.690) or (b) when he slew Neleus' sons at Pulos as recalled by Nestor at 11`.690-3 (bT on 5.392-4), the Pylians being supported by Poseidon, Here and Hades, according to the D-scholiast on 11.690; or (ii) the incident occurred when Herakles became angry with Plouton-Hades for his opposition to the removal of Kerberos from the underworld (bT on 595-7, cf. Σ on Pindar, Ol. 9, 33). Aristarchus (Arn(?)/T) evidently took 397 ἐν Πύλῳ as equivalent to ἐν πύλη, i.e. at the gate (sc. of the underworld), an interpretation supported by ἐν νεκύεσσι if this implies 'among the dead in Hades' (as when Helios at Od. 12.383 says he will go down to Hades καί ἐν νεκύεσσι ...) rather than 'among the corpses on the battlefield' (cf. e.g. 10.349 and ... of Ares at 886). Rhythmical criteria are ambiguous; ... The violent penetration of the underworld was an essential part of the mythical biography of Herakles, but the exact nature of the Pulos reference remains obscure. Pausanias (6.25.2) even assigned the incident to the Eleian Pulos, where Hades had a temple in his time.

• Apollodorus

1.9.9

[9] But afterwards the brothers fell out, and Neleus, being banished, came to Messene, and founded Pylus, and married Chloris,1 daughter of Amphion, by whom he had a daughter, Pero, and sons, to wit, Taurus, Asterius, Pylaon, Deimachus, Eurybius, Epilaus, Phrasius, Eurymenes, Evagoras, Alastor, Nestor and Periclymenus, whom Poseidon granted the power of changing his shape. And when Hercules was ravaging Pylus, in the fight Periclymenus turned himself into a lion, a snake, and a bee, but was slain by Hercules with the other sons of Neleus. Nestor alone was saved, because he was brought up among the Gerenians.² He married Anaxibia, daughter of Cratieus,³ and begat daughters, Pisidice and Polycaste, and sons, Perseus, Stratichus, Aretus, Echephron, Pisistratus, Antilochus, and Thrasymedes.

² See below, Apollod. 2.7.3, and compare Hom. Il. 11.690-693, with the Scholia; Ov. Met. 12.549ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 10. As to Periclymenus, see the verses of Hesiod quoted by the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.156, according to whom Periclymenus received from Poseidon the power of turning himself into an eagle, an ant, a bee, or a snake; but Herakles, so says the scholiast, killed him with a blow of his club when he had assumed the form of a fly. According to another account, it was in the form of a bee that Periclymenus was slain by Herakles （Eustathius on Hom. Od. xi.285, pp. 1685ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Il. ii.336）. Ov. Met. 12.549ff. says that Herakles shot him in the shape of an eagle, and this version is followed by Hyginus, Fab. 10. Periclymenus is also reported to have been able to change himself into any animal or tree he pleased （Eustathius, on Hom. Od. xi.285, pp. 1685ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.286）.

2.7.3

After the capture of Elis he marched against Pylus,¹ and having taken the city he slew Periclymenus, the most valiant of the sons of Neleus, who used to change his shape in battle.² And he slew Neleus and his sons, except Nestor; for he was a youth and was being brought up among the Gerenians. In the fight he also wounded Hades, who was siding with the Pylians.³

¹ As to the war of Herakles on Pylus, see Hom. Il. 5.392ff.; Hom. Il. 11.690ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Il. ii.396; Paus. 2.18.7; Paus. 3.26.8; Paus. 5.3.1; Paus. 6.22.5; Paus. 6.25.2ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.451; Ov. Met. 12.549ff.

² See Apollod. 1.9.9, with the note.

³ See Hom. Il. 5.395ff.; Paus. 6.25.2ff. In the same battle Herakles is said to have wounded Hera with an arrow in the right breast. See Hom. Il. 5.392ff.; Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. ii.36, p. 31, ed. Potter, from whom we learn that Panyasis mentioned the wounding of the goddess by the hero. Again, in the same fight at Pylus, we read that Herakles gashed the thigh of Ares with his spear and laid that doughty deity in the dust. See Hes. Sh. 359ff.

Read/Look at

• LIMC Kerberos [in folder]
• Woodword [in folder]
• Lincoln [in folder]

Other articles

• Rewrite Labours of Hercules#Twelfth Labour: Cerberus
• Add to Troezen Heracles bringing up Cerberus.
• Add to some article about Theseus and Pirithous:

A later painting by Polygnotos (mid 5th century), as described by Pausanias, 10.29.9, showed Theseus and Pirithous sitting on chairs, with Theseus holding both their swords, Pausanius goes on to report that the epic poet Panyassis (5th BC), said that "Theseus and Peirithous did not sit chained to their chairs, but that the rock grew to their flesh and so served as chains." (fragment 14 PEG).

New text

Descriptions

Function

See Ogden 2013a, pp. 108–109

Preventing the dead from leaving:

• Hesiod
• Seneca: "the terms governing the shades have been breached, a way back to earth has been opened from the deep underworld, and the sanctities of dread death lie in plain view. But he, in his arrogance at having smashed the prison of the ghostly dead ..."
• Eustathius, Comentary on Dionysius Periegetes 788–792 (Ogden 2013b p. 68): "he [Cerberus] sat over the dead".

Preventing the living from entering:

• Virgil, Aenied
• Ovid re Orpheus
• Statius:

Silvae

2.1.183–184 (I pp. 90–91)


But lay aside thy fears [for the beloved dead], and be no more in dread of threatening Death: Cerberus with triple jaws will not bark at him.

2.1.229––230 (I pp. 92–93)

Neither the ferryman nor the comrade of the cruel beast^a bars the way [to the Underworld] to innocent souls.

^a Slater suggests that "comes" [comrade] = Cerberus, and "ferae" [beast] = Hydra, as in Virg. Aen. vi.287; Vollmer makes Cerberus the beast, and the comrade a figure found on a wall-painting by the side of Cerberus, and described by Lucan, Phars. vi. 702; cf. Sil. It. Pun. xiii. 587.

3.3.25–30 (I pp. 168–169)

Tis a happy shade that is coming, ay, too happy, for his son laments him. Avaunt, ye hissing Furiae, avaunt the threefold guardian!^a Let the long road lie clear for the peerless spirits. Let him come, and approach the awful throne of the silent monarch and pay his last due of gratitude and anxiously request for his son as long a life.

^a Cerberus.

5.3.277–279 (I pp. 326–327)

But do ye, O monarchs of the dead and thou, Ennean Juno [Persephone], if ye approve my prayer [provide a peaceful journey for the soul of my dead father] . . . let the warder of the gate make no fierce barking.

3.3.25–30 (I pp. 168–169)

Tis a happy shade that is coming, ay, too happy, for his son laments him. Avaunt, ye hissing Furiae, avaunt the threefold guardian!^a Let the long road lie clear for the peerless spirits. Let him come, and approach the awful throne of the silent monarch and pay his last due of gratitude and anxiously request for his son as long a life.

^a Cerberus.

5.3.277–279 (I pp. 326–327)

But do ye, O monarchs of the dead and thou, Ennean Juno [Persephone], if ye approve my prayer [provide a peaceful journey for the soul of my dead father] . . . let the warder of the gate make no fierce barking.

Thebaid

2.27–31 (I pp. 396–397)

"Cerberus lying on the murky threshold perceived them, and reared up with all his mouths wide agape, fierce even to entering folk; but now his black neck swelled up all threatening, now had he torn and scattered their bones upon the ground, had not the god [Hermes] with branch Lethaean soothed his bristling frame and quelled with threefold slumber the steely glare.

• Apuleius, Metamorphoses 6.19 (pp. 284–285).

See also Graf and Johnson 2007 p. 112, noted by Ogden 2013a, p. 109 n. 208]

Pseudo-Nonnus

In an apparently unique, or perhaps garbled version of the story, related by the sixth-century AD Pseudo-Nonnus, Heracles descended into Hades to abduct Persephone, and killed Cerberus (who he says was called Tricranus) on his way back up.

Etymology

Lincoln, Chapter Seven: The Hellhound" pp. 96–106

See this

Add? Fulgentius: p. 110, p. 38, p.52

Sources

• Theoi Project: Kerberos

Ancient

Homer

Iliad

5.395–397

And so suffered monstrous Hades even as the rest a bitter arrow, when this same man, the son of Zeus that beareth the aegis, smote him in Pylos amid the dead

τλῆ δ᾽ Ἀΐδης ἐν τοῖσι πελώριος ὠκὺν ὀϊστόν,

εὖτέ μιν ωὐτὸς ἀνὴρ υἱὸς Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο

ἐν Πύλῳ ἐν νεκύεσσι βαλὼν ὀδύνῃσιν ἔδωκεν:

8.367–368

when Eurystheus sent him forth to the house of Hades the Warder, to bring from out of Erebus the hound of loathed Hades [κύνα στυγεροῦ Ἀΐδαο],

Odyssey

11.620–626

I was the son of Zeus, son of Cronos, but I had woe beyond measure; for to a man far worse than I was I made subject, and he laid on me hard labours. Yea, he once sent me hither to fetch the hound of Hades, for he could devise for me no other task mightier than this. [625] The hound I carried off and led forth from the house of Hades; and Hermes was my guide, and flashing-eyed Athena.’

Hesiod

Theogony

300–303

And in a hollow cave she bore another monster, irresistible, in no wise like either to mortal men or to the undying gods, even the goddess fierce Echidna who is half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far from the deathless gods and mortal men. There, then, did the gods appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima beneath the earth, grim Echidna, [305] a nymph who dies not nor grows old all her days.

304–324

Men say that Typhaon the terrible, outrageous and lawless, was joined in love to her, the maid with glancing eyes. So she conceived and brought forth fierce offspring; first she bore Orthus the hound of Geryones, [310] and then again she bore a second, a monster not to be overcome and that may not be described, Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless and strong. And again she bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess, white-armed Hera nourished, [315] being angry beyond measure with the mighty Heracles. And her Heracles, the son of Zeus, of the house of Amphitryon, together with warlike Iolaus, destroyed with the unpitying sword through the plans of Athena the spoil driver. She was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, [320] a creature fearful, great, swift footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion, another of a goat, and another of a snake, a fierce dragon; in her forepart she was a lion; in her hinderpart, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire.

767–774

There, in front, stand the echoing halls of the god of the lower-world, strong Hades, and of awful Persephone. A fearful hound guards the house in front, [770] pitiless, and he has a cruel trick. On those who go in he fawns with his tail and both his ears, but suffers them not to go out back again, but keeps watch and devours whomever he catches going out of the gates of strong Hades and awful Persephone.

Hecataeus of Miletus

fr. *27 a Fowler (Fowler 2001, p. 136) (apud Pausanias, 3.25.4–5), [=? FGrH 1 F27] [in "Cerberus" folder]

Paus. 3.25.4 (1.266.16 Rocha-Pereira). Τευθρώνης δὲ ἀπέχει πεντήκοντα καὶ ἑκατὸν σταδίους ἐς θάλασσαν ἀνέχουσα ἄκρα Ταίναρον ... ἐπὶ δὲ τῇ ἄκρᾳ ναὸς εἰκασμένος σπηλαίῳ καὶ πρὸ αὐτοῦ Ποσειδῶνος ἄγαλμα. (5)

...

Pausanias, 3.25.4–5 [Jones translation]

[4] ... The promontory of Taenarum projects into the sea 150 stades from Teuthrone, with the harbors Achilleius and Psamathus. On the promontory is a temple like a cave, with a statue of Poseidon in front of it. [5] Some of the Greek poets state that Heracles brought up the hound of Hades here [Tainaron], though there is no road that leads underground through the cave, and it is not easy to believe that the gods possess any underground dwelling where the souls collect. But Hecataeus of Miletus gave a plausible explanation, stating that a terrible serpent lived on Taenarum, and was called the hound of Hades, because any one bitten was bound to die of the poison at once, and it was this snake, he said, that was brought by Heracles to Eurystheus.

Hopman, p. 182

Hecataeus' and Philochorus' respective treatments of Cerberus and the Minotaur exemplify that liguistic-based rationalization of monsters. According to Pausanias' report, Hecataeus thought that the Cerberus fiction originated with the misunderstanding of a hyperbolic metaphor. Cerberus was "in fact" a terrible snake that people hyperbolically called the Hound of Hades because its victims were immediately struck dead (FGrH I F 27 = Paus. 3.25.5-6). Interestinly, Pausanias takes pains to demostrate that Hecataeus' version does not contradict Homer, since the "Hound of Hades" is never described in Homer and therefore may not literally refer to a dog (Paus. 3.25.6). Hecataeus' historical rationalization of the myth relies on the contrast between literal and metaphorical language.

Ogden 2013b, pp. 72–73

Pindar

Pythian

4.44

For if only Euphemus had gone to his home in holy Taenarus and cast the clod beside the earthly mouth of Hades

Acusilaus

fr. 13 Fowler [= FGrH 2F13, Ogden 2013a] [= Diels Vorsokr.⁵ 9 B 6 = FGrH 2 F13?, Hošek] [= fragment 6 Freeman]

Fowler 2001, p. 11 fr. 13

Ἐχίδνης καὶ Τυφῶνος Κέρβεροη καὶ ἄλλα τερατώδη τέκνα

Fowler 2013, p. 28

Kerberos and 'other monsters' duly reappear as children of Typhon and Echidna in Akous. fr. 13;

Freeman, p. 15 fragment 6 [see also [1]]

6. (Cerberus is the son of Echidnê and Typho; also other monsters, including the eagle that eats the liver of Prometheus).

Panyassis

F26 West (pp. 212–213)

26 Clement, Protreptic

Aye, and Homer says that Aïdoneus was shot by Heracles, and Panyassis records that the Elean Hades was; and this same Panyassis also records that Conjugal Hera was shot by the same Heracles

in sandy Pylos.

Bacchylides

Ode 5.56–62

So it was, they say, that the gate-destroying unconquerable son [Heracles] of Zeus of the flashing thunderbolt went down to the halls of slender-ankled Persephone [60] to bring up into the light from Hades the razor-toothed dog [Cerberus], son of the fearsome Echidna.

Sophocles

Oedipus at Colonus

1568–1578

Chorus

Goddesses of the nether world and unconquered beast [1570] whose lair lies in the gates of many guests, you untamable Watcher of Hades, snarling from the cavern's jaws, as rumor has always told! Hear me, Death, son of Earth and Tartarus! [1575] May that Watcher leave a clear path for the stranger on his way to the nether fields of the dead! To you I call, giver of the eternal sleep.

Women of Trachis

1089–1099

O hands, my hands, [1090] O shoulders and chest and trusty arms, you are indeed those noted arms which once subdued with your might the dweller in Nemea, the scourge of herdsmen, the lion, a creature that no man might approach or confront; you tamed the Lernaean Hydra, [1095] and that monstrous army of beasts with double form, hostile, going on hoofed feet, violent, lawless, of surpassing violence; you tamed the beast in Erymanthia, and underground the three-headed whelp of Hades, a resistless terror, offspring of the fierce Echidna;

Hellanicus of Mytilene

Harding, pp. 67–69

Euripides

Heracles

22–25

Other toils he has accomplished, and last of all has he passed through the mouth of Taenarus into the halls of Hades to drag to the light [25] that hound with three bodies, and from there he has never returned.

610–619

Amphitryon

[610] Did you really go to the house of Hades, my son?

Heracles

Yes, and brought to the light that three-headed monster.

Amphitryon

Did you conquer him in fight, or receive him from the goddess?

Heracles

In fight; for I had been lucky enough to witness the rites of the initiated.

Amphitryon

Is the monster really lodged in the house of Eurystheus?

Heracles

[615] The grove of Demeter and the city of Hermione have him now.

Amphitryon

Eurystheus does not know that you have returned to the upper world?

Heracles

He does not; I came here first to learn your news.

Amphitryon

How is it you were so long beneath the earth?

Heracles

I stayed awhile attempting to bring back Theseus from Hades, father.

1169–1170

Wherefore I came making recompense for the former kindness of Heracles [1170] in saving me from the world below,

1221–1222

[Theseus:] I must refer to the time when you [Heracles] brought me safe from the dead to the light of life.

1276–1278

came to the dead to fetch to the light at the bidding of Eurystheus the three-headed hound, hell's porter.

1386–1387

In one thing, Theseus, help my misery; come to Argos and help me to manage the conveyance of the wretched dog;

Critias (or Euripides?)

Pirithous

TrGF 43 F1 Hypothesis (~ Euripides pp. 546–7 Nauck)

Collard and Cropp, pp. 640–641

To woo Persephone, Pirithous went down with Theseus into Hades and met with fitting punishment: he himself was fettered to an immovable seat upon rock and guarded by gaping serpents,1 but Theseus held it shameful to abandon his friend there and went on with the existence in Hades as his life.2 When Heracles was sent by Eurystheus to fetch Cerberus he overcame the beast by force,3 and through the favour of the underworld gods released Theseus and his companion from their predicament: in one act he worsted his opponent, received favour from the gods, and took pity on friends in misfortune.

TrGF 43 F1 lines 10–14

Ogden 2013b, p. 70

[Heracles addresses Aeacus, warder of Hades and wrangler of Cerberus.] I come here under compulsion, subject to the commands of Eurystheus, who has sent me to bring the dog of Hades back alive to the gates of Mycenae. He has no wish to see the dog, but he thought he had discovered in this labour something I would be unable to accomplish.

Collard and Cropp, pp. 646–647

I have come here under compulsion, yielding to the commands of Eurystheus, who [10] sent me with orders to bring the Hound of Hades alive to Mycenae’s gates—not because he wished to see it, but he thought he had invented in this a task beyond my accomplishment.

Aristophanes

Frogs

465–477

Aeacus [to Dionysus disguised as Heracles]

O impious, daring, and most shameless wretch,

O villain, double villain, and arch-villain,

It was you who came before, and stole my dog,

Poor Cerberus! you gagged and seized him,

And then ran off—I was guarding him! but now we've got you,

Thus the black-hearted Stygian rock

and the crag of Acheron dripping with gore

can hold you; and the circling hounds of Cocytus

and Echidna with her hundred heads shall tear [473]

your entrails; your lungs will be attacked by

the Tartesian Eel, your kidneys

bleeding with your very entrails

the Tithrasian Gorgons will rip apart.

To them I will direct my hasty foot.

Xenophon of Athens

Anabasis

6.2.2 [Perseus]

[2] And they came to anchor alongside the Acherusian Chersonese, where Heracles is said to have descended to Hades after the dog Cerberus, at a spot where they now show the marks of his descent, reaching to a depth of more than two stadia.

6.2.2 [Harvard University Press]

And they came to anchor alongside the Acherusian Chersonese, where Heracles is said to have descended to Hades after the dog Cerberus, at a spot where they now show the marks of his descent, reaching to a depth of more than two stadia.¹⁴

¹⁴ Cf. the work of the Heracleot Herodorus, FGH 31 F 31: local pride and tourism.

Ogden 2013b, p. 68

Plato

Republic

588c

[588c] “What sort of an image?” he said. “One of those natures that the ancient fables tell of,” said I, “as that of the Chimaera1 or Scylla2 or Cerberus,3 and the numerous other examples that are told of many forms grown together in one.”

Herodorus of Heraclea

fr. 31 Fowler (Fowler 2001, p. 243) [= Euphorion fragment 41a Lightfoot (see Ogden 2013b, p. 68)] [in "Cerberus" folder]

Schol. (L+) Ap. Rhod. 2.353–6b (155.21 Wendel). "κεῖθεν δ οὺ ...

...

Lightfoot, pp. 272–275:

41

(a) Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica [2.353-356b] [= Herodorus of Heraclea F31 Fowler (see Ogden 2013b, p. 68)]

“A jutting promontory” ] A headland in the vicinity of Heraclea, which the locals call Acherousion. Herodorus and Euphorion in the Xenios say that it was there that Cerberus was fetched up by Heracles and vomited gall, from which grew the drug known as aconite.

Theophrastus

Historia Plantarum

9.16.4 pp. 298–299

Wolf's-bane [akoniton] grows in Crete and in Zakynthos, but is most abundant and best at Heraklei in Pontus.

Philochorus

FGrH 328 [323? see below] F18a [= Plutarch, Theseus 35]

Harding, p. 68

FGrH 328 [323? see below] F18b (Ogden 2013b, p. 73)

The snatching of the girl Persephone by Adoneus, the king of Molossians, who had as exceptionally large dog called Cerberus, with whom he subsequently destroyed Pithous, who had come to him to snatch his wife together with Theseus, Heracles happened by and saved Theseus as he was about to be destroyed in the same way as Pirithous had been.

Gantz, p. 295

323F18

Ogden 2013a, p. 109

²¹¹Philochorus FGrH 323 FF18a-b; cf. Tzetzes on Arishophanes Frogs 142a, Chiliades 2. 36. 408-412.

Harding, p. 68

Callimachus

fragment 515 Pfeiffer (Trypanis, pp. 258–259) [= fragment 40 (161) Mair (below)]

... the foreigner.^a bringing the monstrous son of Echidna from below.

^a Heracles, who dragged Cerberus, the monstrous dog, guardian to the entrance of the lower world, away. Cerberus was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna.

fragment 40 (161) Mair [= fragment 515 Pfeiffer (above)]

The guest bringing from the underworld the snaky [ἐχιδναῖον] beast.^c

^c The 12th labour of Heracles was to bring from Hades Cerberus whose mother was Echidna.

Euphorion of Chalcis

fragment 28 Lightfoot (Lightfoot, pp. 256–257) [= fragment 24 Powell] (Thrax)

28 Etymologicum Genuinum

arrātos: Euphorion in the Thrax:

(at the command of?)

An unconquerable man, bringing Cerberus up to the

light.⁵⁸

⁵⁸ Heracles, who fetched up the hound of hell as one of his labours for Eurystheus.

fragment 41 Lightfoot (Lightfoot, pp. 272–275) [= fragment 37 Powell] (Xenios)

41

(a) Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica [2.353-356b] [= Herodorus of Heraclea F31 Fowler (see Ogden 2013b, p. 68)]

“A jutting promontory” ] A headland in the vicinity of Heraclea, which the locals call Acherousion. Herodorus and Euphorion in the Xenios say that it was there that Cerberus was fetched up by Heracles and vomited gall, from which grew the drug known as aconite.

(b) “Aelius Promotus”, On Poisonous Animals and Noxious Drugs

Aconite grows in Aconai. There is a hill of this name in Heraclea, as reported by Theopompus and Euphorion in the Xenios.

(c) Etymologicum Gudianum

Aconite: a noxious plant, so-called because it grows in the Aconaean mountains of Mariandynia. Or because it is unconquerable and invincible, a metaphor from athletics, in which the victors, not being subject to defeat, are not tumbled in the dust; “rolling in the dust” is another expression for wrestling . . . Euphorion makes the plant feminine.⁷⁴

⁷⁴ It remains slightly unclear what Euphorion said. 41a indicates that he told the story, perhaps from a local historian, how aconite originated from Cerberus’ vomit (Dion. Per. 788–792 and Eustathius ad loc.; Σ Nic. Al. 13b; Pliny,NH 27.4), but 41b that he also derived the name from the hill Aconae. (This implies that the other etymology in 41c, which derives aconite from κονιοῦσθαι, “to be dusty”, does not come from Euphorion.) The area in question is on the coast of Bithynia.

fragment 71 Lightfoot (Lightfoot, pp. 300–303) [= fragment 51 Powell] (location unknown)

71 Berliner Klassikertexte

Golden [2]

And in his fear

Thick (droplets?) with foam

And lurking under his⁹⁷ shaggy belly behind him [5]

The serpents of his tail licked round his ribs,

And in their lids his eyes flashed out blue-black.

Such flashes from the furnaces, perhaps

In Meligounis,⁹⁸ when the hammer smites the iron,

Dart through the air (and the much-pounded anvil [10]

groans aloud)

Or sooty Etna, resting-place of Asteropus.⁹⁹

To Tiryns, to Eurystheus in his spite,

He came alive from Hades: last of twelve ordeals.

And at the cross-roads of Midea,¹⁰⁰ rich in barley,

The frightened women watched him with their sons.

⁹⁷ Cerberus.

⁹⁸ Lipara, one of the Aeolian islands, just north of Sicily (Call. Hymn 3.47–48). Euphorion’s description is also indebted to Callimachus’ account of Hephaestus’ smithy under Etna (Hymn 4.144).

⁹⁹ Perhaps one of the Cyclopes. “Steropes” is listed among their names elsewhere (Hes. Th. 140).

¹⁰⁰ City in Argolis; home of Heracles’ mother (Theocr. Id. 13.20; Hunter ad loc.).

¹⁰¹ Erythea is in the far west, later identified with Gadeira (Cádiz) In order to get there, the Sun lent Heracles the vessel (in Stesichorus, PMG 185, a golden goblet) in which he crossed the ocean by night.

Ogden 2013b, pp. 69–70

Page, D. I., Select Papyri, Volume III: Poetry, Translated by Denys L. Page. Loeb Classical Library 360. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941. pp. 492–493

Behind, under his shaggy belly cowering, the serpents that were his tail darted their tongues about his ribs. Within his eyes, a beam flashed darkly. Truly in the Forges or in Meligunisa leap such sparks into the air, when iron is beaten with hammers, and the anvil roars beneath mighty blows,—or up inside smoky Etna, lair of Asteropus. Still, heb came alive to Tiryns out of Hades, the last of twelve labours, for the pleasure of malignant Eurystheus; and at the crossways of Mideia, rich in barley, trembling women with their children looked upon him ...

Diodorus Siculus

4.25.1

25 1 But when Heracles had made the circuit of the Adriatic, and had journeyed around the gulf on foot, he came to Epirus, whence he made his way to Peloponnesus. And now that he had performed the tenth Labour he received a Command from Eurystheus to bring Cerberus up from Hades to the light of day. And assuming that it would be to [p. 425] his advantage for the accomplishment of this Labour, he went to Athens and took part in the Eleusinian Mysteries, Musaeus, the son of Orpheus, being at that time in charge of the initiatory rites.

4.26.1–2

26 1 Heracles, then, according to the myths which have come down to us, descended into the realm of [p. 427] Hades, and being welcomed like a brother by Persephonê brought Theseus and Peirithoüs back to the upper world after freeing them from their bonds. This he accomplished by the favour of Persephonê, and receiving the dog Cerberus in chains he carried him away to the amazement of all and exhibited him to men.

2 The last Labour which Heracles undertook was the bringing back of the golden apples of the Hesperides, and so he again sailed to Libya.

4.63.4

Peirithoüs now decided to seek the hand of Persephonê in marriage, and when he asked Theseus to make the journey with him Theseus at first endeavoured to dissuade him and to turn him away from such a [p. 19] deed as being impious; but since Peirithoüs firmly insisted upon it Theseus was bound by the oaths to join with him in the deed. And when they had at last made their way below to the regions of Hades, it came to pass that because of the impiety of their act they were both put in chains, and although Theseus was later let go by reason of the favour with which Heracles regarded him, Peirithoüs because of the impiety remained in Hades, enduring everlasting punishment; but some writers of myths say that both of them never returned.¹⁰

14.31.3

Nevertheless, the Sinopians entertained them in kindly fashion and sent them on their way by sea to Heracleia, a colony of the Megarians; and the entire fleet came to anchor at the peninsula of Acherusia, where, we are told, Heracles led up Cerberus from Hades.

Virgil

Aeneid

6.417–425

Here Cerberus, with triple-throated roar,

Made all the region ring, as there he lay

At vast length in his cave. The Sibyl then,

Seeing the serpents writhe around his neck,

Threw down a loaf with honeyed herbs imbued

And drowsy essences: he, ravenous,

Gaped wide his three fierce mouths and snatched the bait,

Crouched with his large backs loose upon the ground,

And filled his cavern floor from end to end.

Aeneas through hell's portal moved, while sleep

Its warder buried; then he fled that shore

Of Stygian stream, whence travellers ne'er return.

8.296–297

At sight of thee [Hercules]

the Stygian region quailed, and Cerberus,

crouching o'er half-picked bones in gory cave.

Georgics

4.467

Nay to the jaws of Taenarus too [Orpheus] came,

4.483

Even Cerberus held his triple jaws agape, [i. e. Cerberus stopped barking when Orpheus played his lyre, see West, p. 107]

Strabo

8.5.1

a headland that projects into the sea, Taenarum, with its temple of Poseidon situated in a grove; and secondly, near by, to the cavern⁸ through which, according to the myth writers, Cerberus was brought up from Hades by Heracles.

8 The "Taenarias fauces" of Vergil Georgics 4.467.

12.3.7

The plant called aconite grows in the territory of Heracleia.

Hyginus

Fabulae

30

[lastly] He brought from the Lower World for the king to see, the dog Cerberus, offspring of Typhon.

32

When Hercules had been sent for the three-headed dog by King Eurystheus,

79

[79] LXXIX. HELEN

Theseus, son of Aegeus and Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, along with Pirithous, son of Ixion, carried off the maiden Helen, daughter of Tyndareus and Leda, from the shrine of Diana while she was sacrificing, and took her to Athens, to a district of the Attic region. When Jove saw that they had such audacity as to expose themselves to danger, he bade them in a dream both go and ask Pluto on Pirithous’ part for Proserpine in marriage. When they had descended to the Land of the Dead through the peninsula Taenarus, and had informed Pluto why they had come, they were stretched out and tortured for a long time by the Furies. When Hercules came to lead out the three-headed dog, they begged his promise of protection. He obtained the favour from Pluto, and brought them out unharmed. Castor and Pollux, Helen’s brothers, fought for her sake, and took Aethra, Theseus’ mother, and Phisadie, Pirithous’ sister, and gave them in servitude to their sister.

151

[151] CLI. CHILDREN OF TYPHON AND ECHIDNA

From Typhon the giant and Echidna were born Gorgon, the three-headed dog Cerberus,

251

[251] CCLI. THOSE WHO, BY PERMISSION OF THE PARCAE, RETURNED FROM THE LOWER WORLD

Hercules, son of Jove, to bring up the dog Cerberus.

Horace

Odes 2.13.33–36

What marvel, when at those sweet airs

The hundred-headed beast spell-bound

Each black ear droops, and Furies' hairs

Uncoil their serpents at the sound?

Odes 2.19.29–32

Grim Cerberus wagg'd his tail to see

Thy golden horn, nor dreamd of wrong.

But gently fawning, follow'd thee [Bacchus],

And lick'd thy feet with triple tongue.

See Garrison, p. 289

Odes 3.11.13–20

West, pp. 101–103:

The watchdog

of the monstrous kingdom, Cerberus himself,

yielded to your charms,

though his head, like a Fury's

is fortified by a hundred snakes,

and fetid breath and gore ooze

from his triple-tongued mouth.

Conington:

The wood, the tiger, at thy call

Have follow'd: thou caust rivers stay:

The monstrous guard of Pluto's hall

To thee [Orpheus' lyre, see West, p. 107] gave way,

Grim Cerberus, round whose Gorgon head

A hundred snakes are hissing death,

Whose triple jaws black venom shed,

And sickening breath.

Ogden 2013a, p. 107:

Horace's Cerberus interestingly has one hundred snake-heads, black ears, and a 'three-tongued mouth that emits a foul breath and swims in gore'.

West p. 108

Hence too the grisly picture of Cerberus, a watchdog with a head like a Fury's fortified with a hundred snakes, with foul breath and gore oozing from its triple-tongued mouth. So Cerberus here has one head, one mouth, and a triple tongue, but Lyde would have known that he had three heads, three mouths and three tongues. Horace is playing number games with Cerberus as at Odes 2. 13. 34-6 and 2. 19. 31-2.

Ovid

Metamorphoses

4.449–451

No sooner had she [Juno] entered the sad gates,

than groans were uttered by the threshold, pressed

by her immortal form, and Cerberus

upraising his three-visaged mouths gave vent

to triple-barking howls.

4.500–501

And with a monstrous composite of foam—

once gathered from the mouth of Cerberus,

the venom of Echidna

7.406–419

Medea, seeking [Theseus'] destruction, brewed

the juice of aconite, infesting shores

of Scythia, where, 'tis fabled, the plant grew

on soil infected by Cerberian teeth.

There is a gloomy entrance to a cave,

that follows a declivitous descent:

there Hercules with chains of adamant

dragged from the dreary edge of Tartarus

that monster-watch-dog, Cerberus, which, vain

opposing, turned his eyes aslant from light—

from dazzling day. Delirious, enraged,

that monster shook the air with triple howls;

and, frothing, sprinkled as it raved, the fields,

once green—with spewing of white poison-foam.

And this, converted into plants, sucked up

a deadly venom with the nourishment

of former soils,—from which productive grew

upon the rock, thus formed, the noxious plant;

by rustics, from that cause, named aconite.

Ogden 2013b, p. 68

9.185

Nor did I fear the monstrous triple form

of Cerberus.

10.17–24

[Orpheus] “O deities of this dark world beneath

the earth! this shadowy underworld, to which

all mortals must descend! If it can be

called lawful, and if you will suffer speech

of strict truth (all the winding ways

of Falsity forbidden) I come not

down here because of curiosity

to see the glooms of Tartarus and have

no thought to bind or strangle the three necks

of the Medusan Monster, vile with snakes."

10.65–66

the triple necks

of Cerberus, that dog whose middle neck

was chained.

Heroides

9.93–94 (pp. 114–115)

nor Cerberus, branching from one trunk into a three-fold dog, his hair inwoven with the threatening snake;

Seneca

Agamemnon

859–862 (pp. 198–199)

The hound of the underworld, dragged aloft

with triple chains,

fell silent, barked with none of his mouths,

fearing the colour of the unknown light.

Hercules Furens

46–62 (pp. 52–53)

JUNO: Even the earth is not room enough. See, he has broken through the gates of nether Jove, ⁸ and brings spoils of triumph over that conquered king back to the upper world. With my own eyes I watched him, after he had shattered the gloom of the underworld and subdued Dis, as he showed off to his father spoils won from that father’s brother. Why not drag off Dis himself, bound and loaded with chains—the god who drew a lot equal to Jove’s? Why not rule over captured Erebus, and unroof the Stygian world? It is not enough to return: the terms governing the shades have been breached, a way back to earth has been opened from the deep underworld, and the sanctities of dread death lie in plain view. But he, in his arrogance at having smashed the prison of the ghostly dead, is celebrating his triumph over me, and highhandedly parading the black hound through Argive cities. I saw the daylight faltering at the sight of Cerberus, and the Sun afraid; I too was seized with trembling, and as I gazed at the triple necks of the defeated monster, I shuddered at what I had ordered.

⁸ I.e. Dis (also called Pluto and Hades), whose power in the underworld is equal to Jove’s in the upper world.

592–604 (pp. 96–97)

HERCULES: Lord of the life-giving light, glory of heaven, who circle through two expanses alternately in your fiery chariot and reveal your glorious face to the broad lands: grant pardon, Phoebus, if your gaze has beheld what is forbidden. I brought earth’s hidden things into the light under orders. And you, ruler and father of the heavenly gods, hold out the thunderbolt to shield your vision; and you who rule the seas with the second-drawn sceptre, make for your deepest waters. All who look from on high on earthly things, at risk of defilement from this strange sight, should turn their gaze away and lift their eyes to heaven, shunning such a monstrosity [Cerberus]. Only two should behold this enormity: he who fetched it, she [Juno] who ordered it.

662–696 (pp. 102–105)

AMPHITRYTON: There rises in the land of Sparta a far-famed ridge, where Cape Taenarus hems the sea with its dense forests. Here the house of hateful Dis opens its mouth; a tall cliff gapes wide, a cavernous abyss extends its vast jaws and spreads a broad path for all the nations. At the outset the way is not obscured by darkness: there falls a faint brightness from the light left behind, a twilight glow of the weakened sunshine, which baffles the eye. Such is the light, mingled with darkness, familiar at dawn or dusk. Then there open up empty regions, spaces extensive enough for all the human race to enter, once plunged into the earth. To travel is no toil: the path itself draws you down. As often a current sweeps ships unwillingly off course, so the downward breeze and the greedy void hurry you on, and the clutching shades never allow you to turn your steps backward.

In the immense abyss within, the River Lethe glides quietly with calm waters, and takes away cares; and lest an opening for return should ever appear, it entwines its sluggish stream in many winding turns, just as the wandering Meander plays with its puzzled waters, bends back on itself and presses forward, uncertain whether to head for the seacoast or its source. Here lies the foul swamp of the torpid Cocytus; here is the shriek of the vulture, there of the foreboding owl, and the grim echoing omen of the unlucky screech owl. Black bedraggled foliage hangs in shadowy fronds on an overhanging yew tree, the haunt of sluggish Sleep. There lies sad Hunger with wasted jaws, and Shame, too late, covers its guilty face. There are Fear and Panic, Death and gnashing Resentment; behind them black Grief, trembling Disease and steel-girt War; hidden at the back, feeble Old Age supports its steps with a stick.

760–761 (pp. 110–111)

AMPHITRYTON: Now recount my son’s glorious struggle. Is it spoil he brings, or a willing gift [Cerberus] from his uncle [Hades]?

782–829 (pp. 110–115)

THESEUS: After this there came into sight the house of greedy Dis. Here the fierce Stygian hound [Cerberus] keeps the shades in fear and guards the kingdom, tossing his triple heads with clamorous noise. Snakes lick the heads foul with pus, his manes bristle with vipers, and a long serpent hisses in his twisted tail. His rage matches his appearance. As he heard the movement of feet, his shaggy coat bristled with quivering snakes, and he pricked up his ears to catch the sound, being practiced in hearing even ghosts. When Jove’s son took his stand closer to the cave, the hound sat back uncertain, and each felt fear. Suddenly with deep barking he alarmed the silent region; the snakes hissed threateningly all over his shoulders. The din of his fearsome bark, emerging through his three mouths, frightened even the shades in bliss. Then the hero loosed the fierce, gaping jaws from his left shoulder, thrust out the Cleonaean head and screened himself with that huge shield.⁴¹ Wielding the great tree trunk in his all-conquering right hand, he whirled it this way and that in constant blows, and redoubled his strikes. Mastered, the hound broke off its threats, wearily drooped all its heads and emerged from the cave that it filled. The two rulers quailed on their thrones and bade him be led away; they granted me [Theseus] too as a gift to Alcides’ [Hercules] request.⁴²

Then he stroked the monster’s foul necks with his hand, and leashed them with adamantine chains. Forgetting himself, the unsleeping watchdog of the dark realm timidly laid back his ears and tolerated being led, acknowledging his master, submitting with lowered muzzles, and thumping each flank with his snaky tail. But after they reached the borders of Taenarus, and the brightness of the unknown light struck his unaccustomed eyes, he regained his spirit after defeat, and shook his great chains furiously; he almost carried off his victor, unbalanced him and dragged him back face-down. Then Alcides looked to my hands too; with our twofold strength we dragged the hound, mad with rage and struggling furiously, and brought him into the world. Once he saw the bright daylight and glimpsed the clear expanses of the shining heaven,⁴³ he shut his eyes tight to expel the hated light, turned his gaze aside and lowered each of his necks to the earth; then he hid his heads in Hercules’ shadow.

But a thronging crowd is approaching with joyful shouts, wearing the laurel on their brows and singing the well-deserved praises of great Hercules.

⁴² Theseus and Pirithous were held captive in Hades after attempting to abduct Proserpine.

984–986 (pp. 126–129)

Cruel Tisiphone, her head encircled with snakes, uses her outstretched torch to block the gateway, left empty after the theft of the hound.

1106–1108 (pp. 138–139)

and fierce Cerberus

where he skulks in his deep cave,

his necks still bound with mighty chains.

Pomponius Mela

1.92 (Ogden 2013b, p. 68)

First on the Black Sea the Maryandyni inhabit a city given them, as they say, by an Acherusian cave that goes down all the way to the ghosts, it is said, and it was out of here that they think Cerberus was dragged up.

Pliny

Natural History

6.4 [Bostock, book 1 chap. 1]

After leaving the Sagaris the Gulf of the Mariandyni¹⁵ begins, and we come to the town of Heraclea,¹⁶ on the river Lycus;¹⁷ this place is distant from the mouth of the Euxine two hundred miles. The sea-port of Acone¹⁸ comes next, which has a fearful notoriety for its aconite or wolf's-bane, a deadly poison, and then the cavern of Acherusia,¹⁹ the rivers Pædopides, Callichorus, and Sonautes, the town of Tium,²⁰ distant from Heraclea thirty-eight miles, and the river Billis.

¹⁵ The modern Gulf of Sakaria. Of the Mariandyni, who gave the ancient name to it, little or nothing is known.

¹⁶ Its site is now known as Harakli or Eregli. By Strabo it is erroneously called a colony of Miletus. It was situate a few miles to the north of the river Lycus.

¹⁷ Now called the Kilij.

¹⁸ Stephanus Byzantinus speaks of this place as producing whetstones, or ἀκοναὶ, as well as the plant aconite.

¹⁹ This name was given to the cavern in common with several other lakes or caverns in various parts of the world, which, like the various rivers of the name of Acheron, were at some time supposed to be connected with the lower world.

²⁰ Now called Falios (or more properly Filiyos), according to D'Anville, from the river of that name in its vicinity, supposed by him and other geographers to be the same as the ancient Billis, here mentioned by Pliny. By others of the ancient writers it is called Billæus.

27.4 [Bostock book 27 chap. 2]

According to the fables of mythology, this plant was originally produced from the foam of the dog Cerberus, when dragged by Hercules from the Infernal⁴ Regions; for which reason, it is said, it is still so remarkably abundant in the vicinity of Heraclea in Pontus, a spot where the entrance is still pointed out to the shades below.

⁴ See B. vi. c. i. [i.e. 6.4 above]

Lucan

Pharsalia

6.664–665

And giants fettered, and the hound that shakes

'Bristling with heads of snakes his triple head,

9.643

and Cerberus at Orpheus' song

Ceased from his hissing

Statius (c. 45 - c. 96 BC)

Silvae

2.1.183–184 (I pp. 90–91)


But lay aside thy fears [for the beloved dead], and be no more in dread of threatening Death: Cerberus with triple jaws will not bark at him.

2.1.229––230 (I pp. 92–93)

Neither the ferryman nor the comrade of the cruel beast^a bars the way [to the Underworld] to innocent souls.

^a Slater suggests that "comes" [comrade] = Cerberus, and "ferae" [beast] = Hydra, as in Virg. Aen. vi.287; Vollmer makes Cerberus the beast, and the comrade a figure found on a wall-painting by the side of Cerberus, and described by Lucan, Phars. vi. 702; cf. Sil. It. Pun. xiii. 587.

3.3.25–30 (I pp. 168–169)

Tis a happy shade that is coming, ay, too happy, for his son laments him. Avaunt, ye hissing Furiae, avaunt the threefold guardian!^a Let the long road lie clear for the peerless spirits. Let him come, and approach the awful throne of the silent monarch and pay his last due of gratitude and anxiously request for his son as long a life.

^a Cerberus.

5.3.277–279 (I pp. 326–327)

But do ye, O monarchs of the dead and thou, Ennean Juno [Persephone], if ye approve my prayer [provide a peaceful journey for the soul of my dead father] . . . let the warder of the gate make no fierce barking.

Thebaid

2.27–31 (I pp. 396–397)

"Cerberus lying on the murky threshold perceived them, and reared up with all his mouths wide agape, fierce even to entering folk; but now his black neck swelled up all threatening, now had he torn and scattered their bones upon the ground, had not the god [Hermes] with branch Lethaean soothed his bristling frame and quelled with threefold slumber the steely glare.

2.32–50 (I pp. 396–397)

There is a place—named Taenarum by the Inacian folk—where foaming Malea's dreaded headland rises ... In this region, so 'tis said, a hidden path conducts the pallid ghosts, and dowers with many a deat the halls of swarth Jove.^a

^a i.e. Pluto.

2.53–54 (I pp. 398–399)

[at the entrance to the underworld at Tainaron] the baying of death's tri-formed warder [Kerberos, Cerberus] has scared the rustics from the fields.

4.486–487 (I pp. 542–543)

[Teiresias performing the rites of necromancy summoning ghosts from the underworld:] " ... nor let Cerberus interpose his heads, and turn aside the ghosts that lack the light."

8.55–56 (II pp. 198–199)

Fierce Alcides, [Herakles] when the iron threshold of Cerberus' gate fell silent, its guardian removed.

Propertius

Elegies

3.5.44 (pp. 234–237)

Cerberus guards the cave of hell with his three throats.

3.18.21–23 (pp. 284–285)

Yet hither [to Hades] all shall come, hither the highest and the lowest class: evil it is, but it is a path that all must tread; all must assuage the three heads of the barking guard-dog

4.5.1–4 (pp. 342–343)

May the earth cover your grave with thorns, bawd, and, what you abhor, may your shade feel thirst; may your spirit find no peace with your ashes, but may avenging Cerberus terrify your vile bones with hungry howl.

4.7.89–90 (pp. 362–363)

By night we drift abroad, night frees imprisoned shades, and even Cerberus casts aside his chains, and strays.

4.11.24–26 (pp. 384–385)

Let fierce Cerberus rush at no shades today, but let his chain hang slack from a silent bolt.

Valerius Flaccus

Argonautica

3.224–228 (pp. 142–143)

As when Coeus² in the lowest pit bursts the adamantine bonds and trailing Jove’s fettering chains invokes Saturn and Tityus, and in his madness conceives a hope of scaling heaven, yet though he repass the rivers and the gloom the hound of the Furies and the sprawling Hydra’s crest repel him.

² One of the Titans hurled into Tartarus by Jove.

Manuwald, p. 127: 128 Eumenidum canis: the 'dog of the Eumenides' is probably not a paraphrase for the Eumenides/Furies ... but rather an underworld dog associated with Furies, perhaps Cerberus. ...

6.112 (pp. 308–309)

with baying loud as that which rings at the grim gate of Dis

Wijsman, p. 61

Plutarch

Theseus

31.1

Theseus was already fifty years old, according to Hellanicus, when he took part in the rape of Helen, who was not of marriageable age. Wherefore some writers, thinking to correct this heaviest accusation against him, say that he did not carry off Helen himself, but that when Idas and Lynceus had carried her off, he received her in charge and watched over her and would not surrender her to the Dioscuri¹ when they demanded her; or, if you will believe it, that her own father, Tyndareüs, entrusted her to Theseus, for fear of Enarsphorus, the son of Hippocoön, who sought to take Helen by force while she was yet a child. But the most probable account, and that which has the most witnesses in its favour, is as follows.

¹ Castor and Pollux, her brothers.

31.2

Theseus and Peirithous went to Sparta in company, seized the girl as she was dancing in the temple of Artemis Orthia, and fled away with her. Their pursuers followed them no farther than Tegea, and so the two friends, when they had passed through Peloponnesus and were out of danger, made a compact with one another that the one on whom the lot fell should have Helen to wife, but should assist the other in getting another wife.

31.3

With this mutual understanding they cast lots, and Theseus won, and taking the maiden, who was not yet ripe for marriage, conveyed her to Aphidnae. Here he made his mother a companion of the girl, and committed both to Aphidnus, a friend of his, with strict orders to guard them in complete secrecy.

31.4

Then he [Theseus] himself, to return the service of Peirithoüs, journeyed with him to Epirus, in quest of the daughter of Aïdoneus the king of the Molossians. This man called his wife Phersephone, his daughter Cora, and his dog Cerberus, with which beast he ordered that all suitors of his daughter should fight, promising her to him that should overcome it. However, when he learned that Peirithoüs and his friend were come not to woo, but to steal away his daughter, he seized them both. Peirithoüs he put out of the way at once by means of the dog, but Theseus he kept in close confinement.

35.1 [= Philochorus F18a (see Harding, p. 68)]

Now while Heracles was the guest of Aïdoneus the Molossian, the king incidentally spoke of the adventure of Theseus and Peirithoüs, telling what they had come there to do, and what they had suffered when they were found out. Heracles was greatly distressed by the inglorious death of the one, and by the impending death of the other. As for Peirithoüs, he thought it useless to complain, but he begged for the release of Theseus, and demanded that this favour be granted him.

35.2 [= Philochorus F18a (see Harding, p. 68)]

Aïdoneus yielded to his prayers, Theseus was set free, and returned to Athens, where his friends were not yet altogether overwhelmed. All the sacred precincts which the city had previously set apart for himself, he now dedicated to Heracles, and called them Heracleia instead of Theseia, four only excepted, as Philochorus writes. But when he desired to rule again as before, and to direct the state, he became involved in factions and disturbances; he found that those who hated him when he went away, had now added to their hatred contempt, and he saw that a large part of the people were corrupted, and wished to be cajoled into service instead of doing silently what they were told to do.

Heraclitus

De incredibilibus 33 (Ogden 2013b, p. 73)

The truth of Cerberus could be the same as about the Hydra. For he had two puppies. Since they always walked alongside their father he seemed to have three heads.

Apollodorus

2.5.12

A twelfth labour imposed on Hercules was to bring Cerberus from Hades.¹ Now this Cerberus had three heads of dogs, the tail of a dragon, and on his back the heads of all sorts of snakes. When Hercules was about to depart to fetch him, he went to Eumolpus at Eleusis, wishing to be initiated. However it was not then lawful for foreigners to be initiated: since he proposed to be initiated as the adoptive son of Pylius. But not being able to see the mysteries because he had not been cleansed of the slaughter of the centaurs, he was cleansed by Eumolpus and then initiated.² And having come to Taenarum in Laconia, where is the mouth of the descent to Hades, he descended through it.³ But when the souls saw him, they fled, save Meleager and the Gorgon Medusa. And Hercules drew his sword against the Gorgon, as if she were alive, but he learned from Hermes that she was an empty phantom.⁴ And being come near to the gates of Hades he found Theseus and Pirithous,⁵ him who wooed Persephone in wedlock and was therefore bound fast. And when they beheld Hercules, they stretched out their hands as if they should be raised from the dead by his might. And Theseus, indeed, he took by the hand and raised up, but when he would have brought up Pirithous, the earth quaked and he let go. And he rolled away also the stone of Ascalaphus.⁶ And wishing to provide the souls with blood, he slaughtered one of the kine of Hades. But Menoetes, son of Ceuthonymus, who tended the king, challenged Hercules to wrestle, and, being seized round the middle, had his ribs broken;⁷ howbeit, he was let off at the request of Persephone. When Hercules asked Pluto for Cerberus, Pluto ordered him to take the animal provided he mastered him without the use of the weapons which he carried. Hercules found him at the gates of Acheron, and, cased in his cuirass and covered by the lion's skin, he flung his arms round the head of the brute, and though the dragon in its tail bit him, he never relaxed his grip and pressure till it yielded.⁸ So he carried it off and ascended through Troezen.⁹ But Demeter turned Ascalaphus into a short-eared owl,¹⁰ and Hercules, after showing Cerberus to Eurystheus, carried him back to Hades.

1 As to Herakles and Cerberus, see Hom. Il. 8.366ff.; Hom. Od. 11.623ff.; Bacch. 5.56ff., ed. Jebb; Eur. Herc. 23ff.; Eur. Her. 1277ff.; Diod. 4.25.1, Diod. 4.26.1; Paus. 2.31.6; Paus. 2.35.10; Paus. 3.18.13; Paus. 3.25.5ff.; Paus. 5.26.7; Paus. 9.34.5; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.388-405 （who seems to follow Apollodorus）; Scholiast on Hom. Il. viii.368; Ov. Met. 7.410ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 31; Seneca, Agamemnon 859ff.; Eur. Herc. 50ff.; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 20 (First Vatican Mythographer 57). Ancient writers differ as to the number of Cerberus's heads. Hesiod assigned him fifty （Hes. Th. 311ff.）; Pindar raised the number to a hundred （Scholiast on Hom. Il. viii.368）, a liberal estimate which was accepted by Tzetzes in one place (Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 699) and by Horace in another （Hor. Carm. 2.13.34）. Others reduced the number to three. See Soph. Trach. 1098; Eur. Herc. 24; Eur. Herc. 1277; Paus. 3.25.6; Hor. Carm. 2.19.29ff., iii.11.17ff.; Verg. G. 4.483, Aen. vi.417ff.; Ov. Met. 4.451ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 151; Seneca, Agamemnon 62; Seneca, Herakles Furens 783ff. Apollodorus apparently seeks to reconcile these contradictions, and he is followed as usual by Tzetzes （Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.390ff.）, who, however, at the same time speaks of Cerberus as fifty-headed. The whole of the present passage of Apollodorus, from the description of Cerberus down to Herakles's slaughter of one of the kine of Hades, is quoted, with a few small variations, by a Scholiast on Hom. Il. viii.368. See Dindorf's edition of the Scholia, vol. i. p. 287. The quotation is omitted by Bekker in his edition of the Scholia p. 233.

2 As to the initiation of Herakles at Eleusis, compare Diod. 4.25.1; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.394. According to Diodorus, the rites were performed on this occasion by Musaeus, son of Orpheus. Elsewhere （Tzetzes, Chiliades iv.14.3） the same writer says that Demeter instituted the lesser Eleusinian mysteries in honour of Herakles for the purpose of purifying him after his slaughter of the centaurs. The statement that Pylius acted as adoptive father to Herakles at his initiation is repeated by Plut. Thes. 33, who mentions that before Castor and Pollux were initiated at Athens they were in like manner adopted by Aphidnus. Herodotus says （Hdt. 8.65） that any Greek who pleased might be initiated at Eleusis. The initiation of Herakles is represented in ancient reliefs. See A. B. Cook, Zeus, i.425ff.

3 Compare Eur. Herc. 23ff.; Paus. 3.25.5; Seneca, Herakles Furens 807ff. Sophocles seems to have written a Satyric drama on the descent of Herakles into the infernal regions at Taenarum. See The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. i. pp. 167ff. According to another account, Herakles descended, not at Taenarum but at the Acherusian Chersonese, near Heraclea Pontica on the Black Sea. The marks of the descent were there pointed out to a great depth. See Xen. Ana. 6.2.2.

4 So Bacch. 5.71ff., ed. Jebb represents Herakles in Hades drawing his bow against the ghost of Meleager in shining armour, who reminds the hero that there is nothing to fear from the souls of the dead; so, too, Verg. A. 6.290ff. describes Aeneas in Hades drawing his sword on the Gorgons and Harpies, till the Sibyl tells him that they are mere flitting empty shades. Apollodorus more correctly speaks of the ghost of only one Gorgon （Medusa）, because of the three Gorgons she alone was mortal. See Apollod. 2.4.2. Compare Hom. Od. 11.634ff.

5 On Theseus and Pirithous in hell, see Apollod. E.1.23ff.; Hom. Od. 1.631; Eur. Herc. 619; Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.101ff., with the Scholiast on 101; Diod. 4.26.1, Diod. 4.63.4ff.; Paus. 1.17.4; Paus. 9.31.5; Paus. 10.29.9; Apostolius, Cent. iii.36; Suidas, s.v. λίσποι;Scholiast on Aristoph. Kn. 1368; Verg. A. 6.392ff., 617ff.; Hor. Carm. 3.4.79ff., iv.7.27ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 79; Aulus Gellius x.16.13; Serv. Verg. A. 6.617; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 18 (First Vatican Mythographer 48). The general opinion seems to have been that Herakles rescued Theseus, but that he could not save Pirithous. Others, however, alleged that he brought up both from the dead （Hyginus, Fab. 79）; others again affirmed that he brought up neither （Diod. 4.63.5）. A dull rationalistic version of the romantic story converted Hades into a king of the Molossians or Thesprotians, named Aidoneus, who had a wife Persephone, a daughter Cora, and a dog Cerberus, which he set to worry his daughter's suitors, promising to give her in marriage to him who could master the ferocious animal. Discovering that Theseus and Pirithous were come not to woo but to steal his daughter, he arrested them. The dog made short work of Pirithous, but Theseus was kept in durance till the king consented to release him at the intercession of Herakles. See Plut. Thes. 31.4-35.1ff.; Ael., Var. Hist. iv.5; Paus. 1.17.4, Paus. 1.18.4, Paus. 2.22.6, Paus. 3.18.5; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.406ff.

6 See Apollod. 1.5.3.

7 Compare Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.396ff., who calls the herdsman Menoetius.

8 Literally, “till he persuaded （it）.”

9 Compare Paus. 2.31.2. According to others, the ascent of Herakles with Cerberus took place at Hermione （Paus. 2.35.10） or on Mount Laphystius in Boeotia （Paus. 9.34.5）.

10 Compare Ov. Met. 5.538ff. As to the short-eared owl （ὦτος）, see D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, Glossary of Greek Birds, pp. 200ff.

E.1.24

[24] But when Theseus arrived with Pirithous in Hades, he was beguiled; for, on the pretence that they were about to partake of good cheer, Hades bade them first be seated on the Chair of Forgetfulness, to which they grew and were held fast by coils of serpents. Pirithous, therefore, remained bound for ever, but Hercules brought Theseus up and sent him to Athens.¹

1 As to Theseus and Pirithous in hell, and the rescue of Theseus by Hercules, see above, Apollod. 2.5.12 with the note. The great painter Polygnotus painted the two heroes seated in chairs, Theseus holding his friend's sword and his own, while Pirithous gazed wistfully at the now useless blades, that had done such good service in the world of light and life. See Paus. 10.29.9. No ancient author, however, except Apollodorus in the present passage, expressly mentions the Chair of Forgetfulness, though Horace seems to allude to it （Hor. Carm. 4.7.27ff.）, where he speaks of “the Lethaean bonds” which held fast Pirithous, and which his faithful friend was powerless to break. But when Apollodorus speaks of the heroes growing to their seats, he may be following the old poet Panyasis, who said that Theseus and Pirithous were not pinioned to their chairs, but that the rock growing to their flesh held them as in a vice （Paus. 10.29.9）. Indeed, Theseus stuck so fast that, on being wrenched away by Hercules, he left a piece of his person adhering to the rock, which, according to some people, was the reason why the Athenians ever afterwards were so remarkably spare in that part of their frame. See Suidas, s.v. Λίσποι; Scholiast on Aristoph. Kn. 1368; compare Aulus Gellius x.16.13.

Pausanias

1.17.4

[4] The accounts of the end of Theseus are many and inconsistent. They say he was kept a prisoner until Heracles restored him to the light of day, but the most plausible account I have heard is this. Theseus invaded Thesprotia to carry off the wife of the Thesprotian king, and in this way lost the greater part of his army, and both he and Peirithous （he too was taking part in the expedition, being eager for the marriage） were taken captive. The Thesprotian king kept them prisoners at Cichyrus.

2.31.2

[2] In this temple [at Troezen] are altars to the gods said to rule under the earth. It is here that they say Semele was brought out of Hell by Dionysus, and that Heracles dragged up the Hound of Hell [κύνα τοῦ Ἅιδου].¹ But I cannot bring myself to believe even that Semele died at all, seeing that she was the wife of Zeus; while, as for the so-called Hound of Hell [Ἅιδου κύνα], I will give my views in another place.²

1 Cerberus, the fabulous watch-dog.

2 Paus. 3.25.6.

2.35.10

[10] Beside this temple is another; it is of Ares, and has an image of the god, while to the right of the sanctuary of Chthonia is a portico, called by the natives the Portico of Echo. It is such that if a man speaks it reverberates at least three times. Behind the temple of Chthonia are three places which the Hermionians call that of Clymenus, that of Pluto, and the Acherusian Lake. All are surrounded by fences of stones, while in the place of Clymenus there is also a chasm in the earth. Through this, according to the legend of the Hermionians, Heracles brought up the Hound of Hell.

3.18.13

[13] Hera is gazing at Io, the daughter of Inachus, who is already a cow, and Athena is running away from Hephaestus, who chases her. Next to these have been wrought two of the exploits of Heracles—his slaying the hydra, and his bringing up the Hound of Hell. Anaxias and Mnasinous are each seated on horseback, but there is one horse only carrying Megapenthes, the son of Menelaus, and Nicostratus. Bellerophontes is destroying the beast in Lycia, and Heracles is driving off the cows of Geryones.

3.25.4

[4] ... The promontory of Taenarum projects into the sea 150 stades from Teuthrone, with the harbors Achilleius and Psamathus. On the promontory is a temple like a cave, with a statue of Poseidon in front of it.

3.25.5

[5] Some of the Greek poets state that Heracles brought up the hound of Hades here [Tainaron], though there is no road that leads underground through the cave, and it is not easy to believe that the gods possess any underground dwelling where the souls collect. But Hecataeus of Miletus gave a plausible explanation, stating that a terrible serpent lived on Taenarum, and was called the hound of Hades, because any one bitten was bound to die of the poison at once, and it was this snake, he said, that was brought by Heracles to Eurystheus.

3.25.6

[6] But Homer, who was the first to call the creature brought by Heracles the hound of Hades, did not give it a name or describe it as of manifold form, as he did in the case of the Chimaera. Later poets gave the name Cerberus, and though in other respects they made him resemble a dog, they say that he had three heads. Homer, however, does not imply that he was a dog, the friend of man, any more than if he had called a real serpent the hound of Hades.

5.26.7

[7] By the smaller offerings of Micythus, that were made by Dionysius, are some of the exploits of Heracles, including what he did to the Nemean lion, the Hydra, the Hound of Hell, and the boar by the river Erymanthus. These were brought to Olympia by the people of Heracleia when they had overrun the land of the Mariandynians, their foreign neighbors. Heracleia is a city built on the Euxine sea, a colony of Megara, though the people of Tanagra in Boeotia joined in the settlement.

8.18.3

[3] He also represents the Styx as a river in Hades, and Athena says that Zeus does not remember that because of her he kept Heracles safe throughout the labours imposed by Eurystheus.“For if I had known this in my shrewd heart

When he sent him to Hades the gate-keeper,

To fetch out of Erebus the hound of hateful Hades,

He would never have escaped the sheer streams of' the river Styx.” Homer, unknown location.

9.31.5

[5] There is another tradition, very different from the first, that Hesiod wrote a great number of poems; the one on women, the one called the Great Eoeae, the Theogony, the poem on the seer Melampus, the one on the descent to Hades of Theseus and Perithous, the Precepts of Chiron, professing to be for the instruction of Achilles, and other poems besides the Works and Days. These same Boeotians say that Hesiod learnt seercraft from the Acarnanians, and there are extant a poem called Mantica （Seercraft）, which I myself have read, and interpretations of portents.

9.34.5

The distance from Coroneia to Mount Laphystius and the precinct of Laphystian Zeus is about twenty stades. The image is of stone. They say that when Athamas was about to sacrifice here Phrixus and Helle, a ram with his fleece of gold was sent by Zeus to the children, and that on the back of this ram they made good their escape. Higher up is a Heracles surnamed Charops （With bright eyes）. Here, say the Boeotians, Heracles ascended with the hound of Hades. On the way down from Mount Laphystius to the sanctuary of Itonian Athena is the river Phalarus, which runs into the Cephisian lake.

10.29.9 [Describing the Nekuia painting by Polygnotos for the Lesche of the Knidians at Delphi (Gantz, p. 292):]

[9] Lower down than Odysseus are Theseus and Peirithous sitting upon chairs. The former is holding in his hands the sword of Peirithous and his own. Peirithous is looking at the swords, and you might conjecture that he is angry with them for having been useless and of no help in their daring adventures. Panyassis the poet says that Theseus and Peirithous did not sit chained to their chairs, but that the rock grew to their flesh and so served as chains.

Arrian

FGrH 156 F76a apud Eustathius of Thessalonica Commentary on Dionysius Periegetes 788–792, (Ogden 2013b, p. 68)

On the far side of the river Sangarius the Mariandyni are neighbours of the Paphlagonians. There the city of Heraclea is founded, where the Cimmerians, eating aconite-grass, suffered misfortune. For it was their ancestral custom to eat grass.

Apuleius

Metamorphoses

6.18 (pp. 282–283)

The famous Achaean city Lacedaemon is not far from here. Ask for Taenarus, hidden in a remote area bordering Lacedaemon.¹³ There is Dis’s breathing-vent,¹⁴ and through wide-gaping doors one is shown a dead-end road. Once you cross the threshold and commit yourself to this road, you will continue by a direct track to Orcus’ palace. But you must not go forward into that shadowy region empty-handed. In each hand you must carry a barley-cake soaked in mead, and hold two coins in your mouth.¹⁵

¹³ The Roman province Achaea included Lacedaemon (Sparta) and Cape Taenarus, where there was a temple and cave traditionally considered an entrance to the underworld.

¹⁴ The expression comes from Vergil, Aeneid VII 568, and in this and the following chapter there are several other echoes of the poet.

¹⁵ The dead were often buried with a small coin in the mouth to pay the ferryman Charon.

6.19 (pp. 284–285)

Do not suppose that this paltry loss of a barley-cake is of no consequence: if you lose either cake you will never see the daylight again. For there is a huge dog with a triple head of vast size, a monstrous, fearsome creature who barks with thundering jaws, trying in vain to frighten the dead, to whom he can do no harm now. He lies in constant watch in front of the threshold outside Proserpina’s black halls, guarding the insubstantial house of Dis. If you restrain him with one cake for prey, you will easily get by him and pass directly into Proserpina’s presence. She will receive you courteously and kindly and try to persuade you to sit down comfortably beside her and eat a sumptuous supper.¹⁷ But you must sit on the floor and ask for common bread and eat that. Then announce why you have come, take what is put before you, and return, buying off the dog’s cruelty with the remaining cake.

¹⁷ An allusion to the trick practised on Theseus, by which he was compelled to sit there for ever (see Aeneid VI 617–618).

Lucian

Dialogues of the Dead

4 (pp. 18–21)

Menippus

My dear Cerberus—I’m a relation, being a Dog myself—I beg you, in the name of the Styx, to tell me what Socrates was like when he came down to you. Seeing that you’re a god, you can be expected not merely to bark, but also to talk like a human when you wish.

Cerberus

When he was at a distance, Menippus, his face seemed completely impassive as he approached, and he appeared to have not the slightest fear of death, and he wanted to impress this on those who stood outside the entrance, but when he had peeped into the chasm, and seen the darkness, and I had bitten him and dragged him by the foot, because he was still slowed down by the hemlock, he shrieked like an infant, and cried for his children and went frantic.

Menippus

Then the fellow was just a sham, and didn’t really despise his plight?

Cerberus

No, but since he could see it was inescapable, he put on a bold front, pretending he would be glad to accept what was quite inevitable, all to win the admiration of the onlookers. I could Generalise about all such men: as far as the entrance, they are bold and brave, but what comes inside is the real test.

Menippus

What did you think of me, when I came down?

Cerberus

You alone were a credit to your breed—you and Diogenes before you, because you came in without having to be forced or pushed, but of your own accord, laughing and cursing at everyone.

Ogden 2013b, pp. 71–72

The Downward Journey, or The Tyrant (Cataplus)

28 (pp. 54–55)

Rhadamanthus:

Enough witnesses! Come, strip off your purple robe that we may see the number of your marks. Well, well! The fellow is all livid and crisscrossed; indeed, he is black and blue with marks. How can he be punished? Shall he be thrown into the River of Burning Fire or turned over to Cerberus?

Gout (Podogra)

302

Do jagged teeth of Cerberus* me rend?

Menippus, or The Descent into Hades

10 (pp. 88–89)

In a trice the whole region began to quake, the ground was rent asunder by the incantation, barking of Cerberus was audible afar off, and things took on a monstrously gloomy and sullen look.

“Aye, deep down it affrighted the king of the

dead, Aïdoneus”—²

for by that time we could see almost everything—the Lake, and the River of Burning Fire, and the palace of Pluto. But in spite of it all, we went down through the chasm, finding Rhadamanthus almost dead of fright. Cerberus barked a bit, to be sure, and stirred slightly, but when I hastily touched my lyre he was at once bewitched by the music.

²Iliad, 20, 61.

14 (pp. 94–95)

Leaving the court reluctantly, we came to the place of punishment, where in all truth, my friend, there were many pitiful things to hear and to see. The sound of scourges could be heard, and therewithal the wails of those roasting on the fire; there were racks and pillories and wheels; Chimera tore and Cerberus ravened.

Dionysius Periegetes

788–792 (Ogden 2013b p. 68)

...and the sacred plain of Maryandyni. There they say that the great bronze-voiced dog of infernal Cronides [Hades], dragged up by the hands of great-minded Heracles, cast forth from its mouths a running slaver, which the earth took up, and there it produced a bane...

Servius

on Virgil Aeneid 6.395

[395] in vincla petivit Hercules a prudentioribus mente magis, quam corpore fortis inducitur, adeo ut duodecim eius labores referri possint ad aliquid: nam cum plura fecerit, duodecim tantum ei adsignantur propter agnita duodecim signa. quod autem dicitur traxisse ab inferis Cerberum, haec ratio est, quia omnes cupiditates et cuncta vitia terrena contempsit et domuit: nam Cerberus terra est, id est consumptrix omnium corporum. unde et Cerberus dictus est, quasi κρεοβόρος, id est carnem vorans: unde legitur “ossa super recubans” : nam non ossa citius terra consumit.

p. 97

Cerberus terra ... quasi κρεοβόρος ["Cerberus, the devourer of all bodies in the earth. Hence he is called Cerberus, as if κρεοβόρος, the eater of flesh"]

Quintus Smyrnaeus

Posthomerica (or Fall of Troy),

6.249–255 (pp. 272–273)

There lay the bulk of giant Geryon

Dead mid his kine. His gory heads were cast

in dust, dashed down by that resitles club

Before him that most murderous hound

Orthros, in furious might like Cerberus

His brother-hound : a herdman lay thereby,

Eurytion, all bedabbled with his blood.

6.260–268 (pp. 272–275)

And there, a dread sight even for Gods to see,

Was Cerberus, whom the Loathy Worm [Έχιδνα] had borne

To Typho in a craggy cavern's gloom

Close on the borders of Eternal Night,

A hideous monster, warder of the Gate

Of Hades, home of Wailing, jailer-hound

Of dead folk in the shadowy Gulf of Doom.

But lightly Zeus' son with his crashing blows

Tamed him, and haled him from the cataract flood

Of Styx, with heavy-drooping head, and dragged

The Dog sore loth to the strange upper air

All dauntlessly.

Hesychius of Alexandria

s.v. eleutheron hydor (Ogden 2013b, pp. 69–70)

In Argos slaves that are being freed drink from the spring of Cynadra, because it was by this route that Cerberus escaped and got his freedom.

Schol. Homer Iliad

5.395–397 (Ogden 2013b, p. 66)

They say that Heracles was commanded by Pluton [Hades] to master Cerberus without shield or Iron, and that he used his lion skin instead of his shield, and that he made stone points for his arrows, and that after his victory when the god opposed him again Heracles became angry and shot him.

Schol. Nicander alexipharmaca

13b (Ogden 2013b, p. 68)

They say that aconite grew up from cerberus's vomit. For it is said that when Cerberus was brought up from the underworld he could not endure the rays of the sun and vomited, and this plant was born from his vomit.

Fulgentius

Mythologies

1.6 (Whitbread, pp. 51–52)

6. The Fable of Cerberus with the Three Heads

At Pluto's feet they place the three-headed dog Cerberus because the envies of human quarrels are brought about in a threefold fashion, that is, by nature, cause, and accident. Hate is natural, as between dogs and hares, wolves and sheep, men and snakes; the passion and jealousy of love, for instance, are causal; what arises casually is accidental, for instance, words between men or a nearby supply of fodder for mules. Cerberus is named for creoboros, that is, flesh eater, and he is imagined as having three heads for the three ages&mdsah;infancy, youth, old age, at which death enters the world.

Creoboros, compare κρέας, "flesh," and βορά, :food." This last sentence occurs only in one late manuscript.

[Compare with Second Vatican Mythographer, 13 and Third Vatican Mythographer, 6.22 (below)]

See Ogden 2013a, p. 190

First Vatican Mythographer

c. 875-1075 ? (see Pepin)

1.57 (Ogden 2013b, pp. 73–74; Pepin, p. 36)

[Ogden:] Tale of Hercules and Tricerberus. Hercules, descending to the underworld to rescue Theseus, feared lest Tricerberus might attack him and tear him apart. so he attacked Cerberus himself and dragged him out of the underworld. When he saw the unaccustomed light of the world above, he cast forth foam from his mouth. It is said that from this foam was born the poisonous herb by the name aconite. For Cerberus is the earth, which is the devourer of all bodies, whence he is called Cerberus, as if creo-boros, that is flesh-devouring'.

[Pepin:] 57 . The Story of Hercules and Tricerberus. While descending to the infernal regions to rescue Theseus, Hercules feared that Tricerberus might attack him and tear him to pieces. So, leaping upon Cerberus first, he dragged him up from the infernal regions. When Cerberus saw the unaccustomed light of the upper world, he foamed at the mouth; from this foam a poisonous plant called aconite is said to have originated. For Cerberus is the earth, ‘‘she who consumes.’’ Hence Cerberus is said to be named from creoboros, that is ‘‘devouring flesh.’’

Second Vatican Mythographer

3 (Pepin, p 104)

So also the elements which they hold in check are joined together by a certain natural plan, and the scepters of these deities signify this, for Jupiter has his three-forked thunderbolt, Neptune his trident, and Pluto his Cerberus.

13 (Pepin, p. 106)

13 . On His Three-Headed Hound. At Pluto’s feet they place a three-headed hound because the ill will of quarrels is inflamed by a triple circumstance, that is, natural, causal, and accidental. The natural one is hatred, as of dogs and hares, wolves and sheep, men and serpents. The causal one is like the jealousy of love. The accidental one is either what arises by chance, as relates to men, or because of grazing together, as relates to the herds. Or, since Cerberus is the earth, the devourer of all bodies, he is called Cerberus, as if to say creoborus, ‘‘devouring flesh.’’

[Compare with Fulgentius Mythologies 1.6 (above) and the Third Vatican Mythographer, 6.22 (below)]

173 (Pepin, p. 171)

The reason Hercules is said to have dragged Cerberus out of the Underworld is because he scorned and subdued all passionate desires and all worldly vices. For Cerberus is earth, that is, she who consumes all bodies. He is called Cerberus as if to say creoborus, ‘‘devouring flesh.’’ Aconite is said to have sprung forth from the foam of this Cerberus, which he spewed when he was dragged, and it is called a cote because it springs forth from stones. Thus we read in Vergil: ‘‘Reclining on bones,’’ 63 for the earth quickly consumes bones.

Tzetzes

c. 1110 – 1180

Chiliades

2.36.388–411 (Greek: Kiessling, pp. 55–56; English translation: Berkowitz, p. 48)

After bringing the apples, moreover, to Eurystheus

Heracles accomplishes the twelfth labor, the bringing up of Cerberus

Who was the terrible fifty-headed dog of Hades, [390]

Having three dog heads, the tail of a dragon,

And down the back, heads of other beasts of all sorts.

Heracles raised up Theseus, while the cowherd of Hades,

Menoetius the son of Ceuthonymus, he broke in pieces,

After rubbing and dashing together his ribs in wrestling.

Heracles even found Cerberus in the gates of Acheron.

Covered only by his lion skin and breast piece,

Apart from the rest of his weapons, just as Pluton said,

Heracles held him down from the neck, while being bitten by the tail,

and by the rest of the heads along the back of this dog,

And carried it through Troezen to Eurystheus.

He then brings it back down to Acheron and Hades.

This Hades was the king of the Molossians,

Having, also, a very large dog which he called cerberus.

This Hades, even holding down Pirithous, together with Theseus,

On the one hand killed Pirithous, but was guarding Theseus.

Having come to Acheron, Heracles saved Theseus.

And the rest of the facts are quite manifest; so why do we speak at great length?

4.31.911–916 (Greek: Kiessling, p. 153; English translation: Berkowitz, p. 138)

[Hades,] who has held them down, already binds Thesues,

And takes out Pirithous through Cerberus, a very large dog,

Since he knows that that man is also a seizer of his daughter,

But Theseus is a collaborator in a friendly manner.

Later , going to this Hades as a friend, Heracles

Delivers Theseus from the enclosre and the bonds.

Eustathius

c. 1115 – 1195/6

Comentary on Dionysius Periegetes 788–792 (Ogden 2013b p. 68)

Third Vatican Mythographer

=? Alberic of London fl. c. 1160

=? Alexander Neckam 1157-1217

6.22 (Pepin, p. 250)

22 . The philosophers understand three-headed Cerberus to be ‘‘hatred.’’ They place him at the feet of Pluto. Cerberus is interpreted to mean ‘‘devouring flesh.’’ Now hatred is practiced on earth in three ways: one is natural hatred, as of men and snakes; another is causal hatred, as that which is aroused by an injury that has been inflicted; another is casual hatred, as when hatred is often incurred for a single word, unless it is appeased. Some philosophers think of Cerberus as the tripartite earth: Asia, Africa, and Europe. This earth, swallowing up bodies, sends souls to Tartarus. What others might think about this, we shall say below. It should be noted that the individuals among the three brothers have similar insignia in part, for Jupiter holds a three-forked thunderbolt, Neptune a trident, and Pluto has a dog with three heads.

[Compare with Compare with Fulgentius Mythologies 1.6 and the Second Vatican Mythographer. 13 (above)]

13.4 (Pepin, p. 324)

[Hercules] dragged Cerberus up from the Underworld: because he despised and subdued all passionate desires and all earthly vices, for Cerberus is earth, the devourer of all bodies. Thus he is called Cerberus, as if to say creboros, "devouring flesh."

John Ridewall

c. 1331 Fulgentius metaforalis

Modern

Bloomfield

• Google Books
• 2012 Google books [Partial]
• www.gutenberg.org
• Internet Archive [Complete text, no images, no Appendix]

• Bloomfield, Maurice, Cerberus, the Dog of Hades: The History of an Idea, Open Court publishing Company, 1905. Online version at Google Books [Complete text, no images, no Appendix]

Collard and Cropp

p. 637

It ends by stating that both Theseus and Pirithous were rescued by Heracles, and it is probably the source of the scholia on the Byzantine Tzetzes, Chiliades 4.911 (p. 573 Leone), which attribute the double rescue to Euripides and imply that a different version was commoner, in which Pirithous was intended as food for Cerberus and could not be rescued (so too Tzetzes on Aristophanes, Frogs 142a; the double rescue reappears in e.g. Diodorus 4.26.12 and Hyginus, Fab. 79.3; Heracles’ rescue of Theseus alone during the same labour also occurs in Euripides’ Heracles 610–9, 1221–2, and the single rescue persists in e.g. Horace, Odes 4.7.27–8: on this whole topic see Alvoni 294–5). The play’s dominant theme of friendship under severe trial (here between all three main persons: F 1, Hypothesis, end; F 6, 7) is frequent in Euripides; it helps to suggest his authorship (Mette, Sutton), but cannot prove it.

Fowler

p. 306

In choosing Tainaron as the site of his revision, [Hecataeus] is choosing the most famous of all the many entrances to the underworld in Greek territories.¹⁵⁹

¹⁵⁹ The complete, lengthy list is compiled by Ganschinetz, RE 10.2 2383-6 s.v. Katabasis. In literature, cf. Pher. fr. 39 ...

Gantz

p. 23

Presumably the frequent variant of two heads arose from logistical problems in draftmanship.

Nimmo Smith

p. 37

51

Fifty-first is the story about Cerberus. It is this.

There is a myth that there is a certain dog with three heads who is called Tricranus. And he, they say, guards the gates of Hades. Though he welcomes and fawns on those who descend, he bites those trying to ascend and does not allow them to do so. They say, then, that when Heracles went down to abduct Persephone with Pirithous he killed Cerberus on his way up.⁸⁶

⁸⁶ This appears to be the only version of the story in which Heracles kills Cerberus, ...

Ogden

2013a

p. 106

But most commonly only two heads are visible (first from c.540-530 BC): do such images salute or establish a tradition of a two-headed Cerberus, or are we to imagine a third head concealed behind the two that can be seen?¹⁸⁸

¹⁸⁸ LIMC Herakles 2554, 2556, 2557, 2560, 2562, 2568, 2569, 2577, 2578, 2579, 2581, (c.540-530 BC), 2586, 2588, 2595, 2596, 2600, 2603, 2604, 2613, 2614.

p. 114

A tale uniquely (vestigially) recorded by the sixth-century AD Nonnus Abbas has Heracles descending to seize Persephone for Pirithous and then actually killing Cerberus as he ascends back out of the underworld (the point, of course, at which Cerberous would first oppose him).²⁵⁴

²⁵⁴ Nonnus Abbas Scholia Mythologica 4. 51 Nimmo Smith.

pp. 190–191 n. 269

The Third Vatican Mythographer 6. 22, building on the Cerberus traditions of both Servius and Fulgentius, contends that Cerberus' three heads symbolize the three varieties of hatred men experience, or the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, the earths of which swallow human bodies to send souls to,Tartarus. The nice point is also made that the three brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades all possess trifurcated totems: respectively, a three-branched thunderbolt, a trident, and Cerberus.

2013b

p. 63

In his earliest iconography, that of the archaic and earlier classical periods, from ca. 590 BC onwards, he is characteristically represented with a serpent tail, a serpent rising from each of his heads or serpents sprouting out all over his body (LIMC Herakles 2553-4, 2560, 2571, 2579, 2581, 2588, 2595, 2600, 2603-6, 2610-11, 2614, 2616, 2621, 2628).

p. 74

The name Tricerberus celebrates the dog's three heads. Creoboros is a genuine Greek word and does indeed mean "Flesh-devouring', but has no part to play in the genuine etymology of Cerberus's name, which remains obscure.

Room

p. 88 [In Cerberus folder]

Cerberus was the watchdog of the Underworld, the brother of Hydra and Chimaera. His number of heads varied according to his authors: Hesiod gave him three (or fifty), Horace gave him a hundred. His name probably is not Greek at all, but may be related to that of another mythical dog, Karbaras, who in Asian mythology was one of the two dogs of Yama, the Hindu god of death. If we seek a Greek origin, however, we can perhaps consider Ker berethrou, 'evil of the pit' (see Ker; berethron, 'pit', is the Epic and Ionic form of barathron), or recall one of his by-names, Creoboros 'flesh-devouring', from créas, 'flesh', 'meat' and boros, 'devouring'. (Another of his by-names was Creophages, meaning much the same, from créas and phagein,'to eat'.) Is it possible that ultimately his name is simply a representation of a bark or snap? (The initial C is pronounced hard in his name.)

Schefold

1966 [in folder]

p. 68

The master of a skyphos, [Fig. 23] which is now lost, combines Heracles' fight with the Hydra with his mastering of Cerberus, the Hound of Hell; he thus shows an early and a late deed, two achievements situated at the extremes of the hero's cycle of legends. At roughly the same time as the creation of this vase-painting, the poet of the Iliad (V,395 ff.) makes Heracles combat Hades himseld, which explains why we see Hades fleeing from Heracles. The original meaning of the legend was that Heracles, by this victory, won immortality. By his bold intrusion he is also able to deliver the two friends Theseus and Perithous. The two had, like Heracles, forced their way into the Underworlds to bring aid to the Attic goddess Persephone who had been abducted by Hades. But, by magic, Hades had rooted the friends to a throne. A shield-relief [Fig 24] shows us Heracles as, with drawn sword, he strides towards the entreating [cont.]

[Fig.] 23. Heracles fighting the Hydra and Heracles in Hades. Skyphos from Argos. c. 590–580 B.C.—Now lost

p. 69

[Fig.] 24. Heracles with Theseseus and Perithous in Hades. Shield-relief. Width of strip 6.2 cm (2 7/16 in.). c. 580-570 B.C.—Olympia

prisoners, determined to deliver the unhappy men by force. It was not until the fifth century that the legend received its new form in which Theseus alone is released without Perithous.

1992

p. 129

[The capture of Cerberus] is illustrated as early as the middle Korinthian period, on a skyphos (M&L p. 68 fig. 23; now lost) which paired it with the terrible adventure of the Hydra. Herakles has succeeded in reaching the very throne of Hades; as he approaches, the king retreats in horror.²⁹³ Persephone (for it can hardly be Athena) moves to meet the hero as Hermes leads him forward, encouraging him with a bit of body-contact. Kerberos scampers off to the column which marks the palace entrance. The narrative emphasis of the picture, which is laid out in unusual detail, and its justapsition with the Hydra-fight suggest the influence of Peisandros' high archaic epic of the deeds of Herakles.

...

The most menacing of all Kerberos pictures is a piece by the powerful Lakonian artist dubbed the Hunt Panter (fig. 149. from the Erskine collection in London); we have already seen his picture of the fight between Herakles and the lion (fig. 106), and referred to a fragment from his hand showing the Erymanthian boar (n. 232). Here for the first time Kerberos has three heads to which Sophokles, following epic authority, refers (Women of Trachis 1198); and he is completely covered with a shaggy coat of shakes, a feature already suggested on the Korinthian skyphos. In Attic vase-painting, by contrast, the hound is bicephalic and it is usually only his tail which has a snake head as finial.

p. 130

The Laconian cup is a magnificent realization of a creature which archaic imaginational invented but which could not easily represent -- the Korinthian skyphos had to simplify it. The Hunt painter's style retains that old-fashioned solemn monumentality which by 560, the approximate data of this cup, had long been abandoned by the Attic masters. The design is particularly daring: it is as if we are presented with a partial excerpt from a frieze. On the extreme right we see Heracles' left leg, and just above his two hands, which keep a firm grasp on club and chain. The chain, pulled taut, leads to a black ring attached to Kerberos' white collar, carefully fixed so as to secure all three necks. One of the heads, and the snake tail, rear up to threaten Heracles, while another head sniffs at Hermes, whose presence, as he walks ahead, is indicated by winged shoes on the far left.

We find this ...

they show Herakles or Hermes calming Kerberos and enticing him out of Hades' palace without any struggle or resistance on the dogs part at all (see p. 39 above).

The finest of this series is the Andokides Painter's amphora in the Louvre, painted shortly after 520 (fig. 152); its delicate tensions are perfectly adapted to the subject. (Kneeling down is still the recommended technique for placating snarling Greek sheepdogs.^294a) Appropriately, the treatment is somewhat more restrained than on the Munich amphora showing Herakles feasting (fig. 47). A tree serves to designate the sacred grove which stands outside the palace of Hades, a miniture snake rears threateningly. Herakles holds out his left hand in a pacifying gesture, calming the dog to where it will allow itself to be collared; his lips are pursed in a reassur- [cont.]

p. 131

ing wisper. His lion-skin, worn over a red chiton, is a finely dotted, as on the Amazon amphora (figs. 138f.) and thinned paint is used for the mane. The danger involved in the enterprise is expressed by the Hero's sword and club, quiver and bow-case, and Athena's aegis too is more elaborate than in the painter's other Herakles pictures.

A slightly later Leagros Group amphora in the Vatican (fig. 153) takes a similar approach, though here we have a fuller veraion of the story than the single attention-grabbing extract that the Andokides Painter gave us. Persephone sits in her palace; her husband Hades is shown as an old man with white hair and a bald patch, but not the dark locks on his forehead that characterise him in later art. Sceptre in hand, he turns away from the dangerous scene before him. Neither he nor Persephone do anything to prevent Herakles — rather the contrary, for their own gestures seem to echo the soothing motions that Herakles is making. One of Kerberos' heads is turned back hesitantly, but the other is already half won over and looks up to Herakles; he, for his part, is not entirely confident that the calming gesture of his left hand will do the trick, and holds his club ready as a back-up. The figure of Athena, too, has aquired an extra detail; she has put her shield [cont. p. 132]

fig. 153

153 Heracles makes off with Kerberos, watched by Hades and Persephone. Amphora, Leagros Group; 520-510. Vatican 372.

p. 132

[cont.] down and propped it against the background. On other pictures she is replaced by Hermes, Escort of the Dead; he holds the chain for the dog, and sometimes either he or Herkles may enjoin silence with a finger held to the lips.

The wide variety of available motifs can perhaps be explained on the assumption that there existed ...

fig. 152

152 Heracles tranquillising Kerberos. Amphora by the Andokides Painter. c 520. Paris Louvre F 204.

Smallwood

p. 87

In Attic case painting, Kerberos usually has two canine heads (one head: 2570. 2576), a mane down his necks and back, and a snake tail; in other art, archaic and later, he usually has three heads (one head: 2553. 2591. 2621; two heads: 2579). See -> Kerberos."

p. 93

ROMAN

Kerberos usually has three canine heads, sometimes with the central one larger (leonine on 2640. 2642. 2656. 2666) than the other two.

p. 98

In Greek art, by far the greatest number of representations of H. and Kerberos are on Attic bf. vases,

Wilson-Okamura

p. 169

Cerberus is real too, but he is a type of personality, the type who is always on guard. This, says Boccacio means avarice. Why does Cerberus have three mouths? Because there are three types of avarice: prodigal spending, miserly hoarding, and the lazy exploitation of other peoples' sweat (sudoribus). Why does he have snakes for a collar? Those are the cares of greed.⁹⁵

⁹⁵ Boccaccio, Genealogiae deorum gentilium 8.6 ... C.f. Conti, "On Cerberus Understood Scientifically": "Cerberus is avarice and desire for riches ... He has many heads because many are the crimes that spring from one source avarice" (Mythologia 10, p. 535).

Iconographic

Vases

See Perseus Vase collections: [2]

? Argos cup (lost)

One of the two earliest depictions of the capture of Cerberus (composed of the last five figures on the right) shows, from right to left: Cerberus, with a single dog head and snakes rising from his body, fleeing right, Hermes, with his characteristic hat (‘’petasos’’) and caduceus, Heracles, with quiver on his back, stone in left hand, and bow in right, a goddess, standing in front of Hades’ throne, facing Heracles, and Hades, with scepter, fleeing left. Drawing of a lost Corinthian cup (c. 590–580 BC) from Argos.

[One-headed, Athena, Hermes, Hades, Persephone]

LIMC Heracles 2553 [no image]

Monument ID 7081

= Herakles 1990

= Kerberos 1

Gantz

p. 22

The earliest artistic portrayal, a Middle Corinthian kotyle from Argos, shows only one head, but has snakes growing out all over his body (lost; cf. the Caeretan hydria Louvre E701).

p. 413

In art we first encounter the story on the same (now lost) Korinthian kotyle of the early sixth century which we ... The artists conception of the story is somewhat surprising: Herakles holds down the center ... In any case the artist certainly intends us to understand that Herakles threatens violence in order ti get Kerberos, in contrast to virtually all [cont.]

p. 414

later representations of the story.

Ogden 2013a, p. 106

In one of his first two appearences, that on a lost kotyle from Argos (c.590-580 BC), and occasionally thereafter, he is just single-headed.¹⁸⁴

¹⁸⁴ The lost kotyle from Argos: LIMC Heracles 2553 (c.590-580 BC); note also the relief pithos fragment 2621 (c.590-570 BC), in which Heracles leads along a Cerberus who seems to have a single leonine head with an open-mouthed snake coiling over his back).

Ogden 2013a, p. 111

On one of the two earliest Cerberus vases, the c.590-580 BC lost kotyle from Argos, Heracles is shown attacking Hades with a stone.

Smallwood

[p. 87] a) Herakles threatens Hades: Kerberos runs away

Corinthian Vase

2553. ... About 590-580 B.C. H., (naked, quiver on back, bow in r. hand) striding l., raising a stone (?) at Hades, who flees l.; confronting H., goddess (identified as Athena by Payne, o. c. 130; Beckel 43; Boardman 7, Demargne, -> Athena 11; as Persephone by Schefold, SB II 120; ...) standing in front of throne; following H., Hermes; on r. Kerberos (one head, snakes rising from body and head) fleeing r.; on far r. a column.

[p. 97] The earliest representations of the labour occur at the beginning of the 6th cent. B. C. On a Corinthian [cont.]

[p. 98] cup (2553) H. is shown in the underworld, armed with his bow and followed by Hermes, threatening Hades with a stone. The god and his dog (single-headed with snakes springing from his body) flee in opposite directions. the goddess standing in front of Hades' thrown, preventing the attack, may be Persephone or possibly Athena, given the early date of the vase and the Homeric passages referring to Athena's and Hermes participation in the labour (Il. 8, 362-369; Od. 11, 623-626). Although there is a suggestion of violence in some later Underworld scenes (2559. 2566. 2567. 2570), this is the only preserved illustration where H. threatens Hades himself.

Schefold 1966, p. 68

The master of a skyphos, [Fig. 23] which is now lost, combines Heracles' fight with the Hydra with his mastering of Cerberus, the Hound of Hell; he thus shows an early and a late deed, two achievements situated at the extremes of the hero's cycle of legends. At roughly the same time as the creation of this vase-painting, the poet of the Iliad (V,395 ff.) makes Heracles combat Hades himseld, which explains why we see Hades fleeing from Heracles. The original meaning of the legend was that Heracles, by this victory, won immortality. By his bold intrusion he is also able to deliver the two friends Theseus and Perithous. The two had, like Heracles, forced their way into the Underworlds to bring aid to the Attic goddess Persephone who had been abducted by Hades. But, by magic, Hades had rooted the friends to a throne.

[Fig.] 23. Heracles fighting the Hydra and Heracles in Hades. Skyphos from Argos. c. 590–580 B.C.—Now lost

Schefold 1992, p. 129

[The capture of Cerberus] is illustrated as early as the middle Korinthian period, on a skyphos (M&L p. 68 fig. 23; now lost) which paired it with the terrible adventure of the Hydra. Herakles has succeeded in reaching the very throne of Hades; as he approaches, the king retreats in horror.²⁹³ Persephone (for it can hardly be Athena) moves to meet the hero as Hermes leads him forward, encouraging him with a bit of body-contact. Kerberos scampers off to the column which marks the palace entrance. The narrative emphasis of the picture, which is laid out in unusual detail, and its justapsition with the Hydra-fight suggest the influence of Peisandros' high archaic epic of the deeds of Herakles,

? Cretan relief pithos fragment

LIMC Herakles 2621 [no image]

Monument ID 14625

Ogden 2013a, p. 108

Occasionally Cerberus' head is shown in leonine form, in both Greek and Roman art: he is represented this way on the other of two earliest images, a fragmentary relief pithos from Crete, c.590-570 BC²⁰³

²⁰³ LIMC Herakles 2621. On 2640, a Roman sarcophagus of AD 150-75, Cerberus' leonine head matches that which hangs down from Heracles' lionskin.

Smallwood

[p. 92] 9. Uncertain and incorrect identifications

Vases

2621. Relief pithos fr., ... About 590-570 B. C. - H.? (only l. arm preserved) leading Kerberos (single leonine head, open-mouthed snake over back) to r. Identification, suggested by Dunbabin, taken as certain by Schäfer.

[p. 97] A Cretan relief pithos (2621) of about the same date [as 2553] shows a single-headed beast, with a snake's head over its back, being led to the r., but too little of the fragment is preserved for a secure interpretation as H. and Kerberos.

Basel 1921.349

[Two-headed, Athena, Hermes]

LIMC Herakles 2588

Monument ID 21903

Beazley Archive 7573

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Shape Name: CUP A

Date: -525 to -475

Attributed To: LEAFLESS GROUP by DESCOEUDRES

Decoration: A: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, HERMES AND ATHENA, SEATED, :DIONYSOS

B: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, DIONYSOS (TWICE) AND HERMES

Current Collection: Basel, Antikenmuseum und Sammlung Ludwig: BS1921.349

Publication Record: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: BASEL, ANTIKENMUSEUM 1, 116, :PL.(197) 51.2.4-5

Berlin 3232

[Two-headed, Hermes]

LIMC Heracles 2586 [no image]

Beazley Archive 200980

Date: -525 to -475

Perseus Berlin V.I. 3232 (Vase)

Date: ca. 510 BC - ca. 500 BC

Side B: Herakles and Cerberus. Herakles, guided by Hermes, leads Cerberus out of hell. Hermes, walking to the left, looks back and gestures to Herakles with his left hand, his traveler's staff held in his right hand. Herakles, following at a run, in turn looks back at Cerberus who is here depicted with only two heads, both snarling. Hermes wears a chlamys, petasos and winged boots, Herakles a short chiton and his lion skin.

BM 1893.7-12.11

[Two-headed, Hermes, Persephone, column]

LIMC Herakles 2603

Monument ID 7156

Beazley Archive 302997

Date: -550 to -500

British Museum 1893,0712.11

Date c. 490

BM F270

[One-headed (modern restoration made three-headed)]

British Museum 1867,0508.1335

Date: 330-310

Ogden 2013a, p. 110

A calyx crater from Tarentum of c.350-300 BC shows a young man conducted to the boundry of Hades, symbolized by a herm statue: Orpheus stands by, and offers him his lyre whilst restraining Cerberus.²¹⁹

²¹⁹ BM F270; cf. M. L. West 1983: 25, 30-2 and pl. 3, Ogden, 2001: 125-7.

Bernabe (?) in Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia

p. 160?

A different type is found in a crater of the British museum in London (F270 [Fig. 6.10]); cf. Schmidt 1975: 120-122 and tav. XIV; also Pensa 1977: 30). Orpheus and a young man are at the entrance to Hades, marked by a Herm. Orpheus bears Cerberus with a chain because he has tamed him with music, and thus he assumes the function of a protector that defends the young man, without doubt an initiate, against the terrors of Hades.

p. 163 Fig. 6.10

Figure 6.10. Apulian Crater. British Musem F270.

Boston 01.8025

[Two-headed, Hermes]

LIMC Herakles 2583

Kerberos 13

Beazley Archive 201524 [no image]

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: RED-FIGURE

Shape Name: PLATE

Provenance: ITALY, CHIUSI

Date: -525 to -475

Attributed To: PASEAS by BEAZLEY

Decoration: OV: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, HERMES

Current Collection: Boston (MA), Museum of Fine Arts: 01.8025

Perseus Boston 01.8025 (Vase)

Collection: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Summary: Tondo: Herakles and Kerberos.

Ware: Attic Red Figure

Painter: Attributed to the Paseas (The Cerberus Painter)

Date: ca. 530 BC - ca. 500 BC

Primary Citation: ARV2, 163, 6

Shape: Plate

Beazley Number: 201524

Period: Archaic

Image

Caskey and Beazley, 1. 01.8025 PLATE Herakles and Kerberos PLATE I and FIGURE 1

Kerberos is represented with two heads, as regularly in Attic vase painting, and a shaggy neck.

Theoi M12.5 HERAKLES, HERMES & KERBEROS

Boston 28.46

[Two-headed, Athena, Hermes, Persephone, column]

LIMC Herakles 2556

Monument ID 7152

Beazley Archive 302270

Date: -550 to -500

Fiesole, A. Costantini

[Two-headed, Athena, Hermes, club, chained]

Beazley Archive 6835

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Shape Name: AMPHORA, NECK

Decoration: A: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, ATHENA, HERMES

B: WARRIORS, FIGHTING OVER FALLEN WARRIOR

Current Collection: Fiesole, A. Costantini

Publication Record: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: FIESOLE, COLLEZIONE :COSTANTINI 1, 11-12, PLS.(2529,2530) 17.1.3, 18.1-3

Edinburg 1881.44.27

[Two-headed, Athena, Hermes, Snakes protruding from heads]

LIMC Herakles 2581 [no image]

Monument ID 14628

Beazley Archive 301604

Date: -550 to -500

Erskine Laconian cup

[Three-headed (first)]

LIMC, Heracles 2605 [no image]

Monument ID 13918

= Kerberos 25, Hermes 518

Smallwood, p. 91

Laconian Vase

2605. (= Hermes 518) Cup, bf. Once London, Erskine. ... About 560-550 B.C. - Huge, three-headed Kerberos (snakes on body and heads as well as tail), filling field, walking l., preceded by Hermes and followed by H. (chain in both hands, club in l.), both cut off by tondo frame. Above Kerberos, eagle flying l.

Smallwood, p. 91

A contemporary Laconian cup (2605) shows H. driving a triple-headed Kerberos ahead of him, with Hermes preceding them, and the same scene appears on a slightly later Attic bf. cup (2606), where, as usual in archaic Attic art, Kerberos has two heads. Bothe these artists emphasize the size and ferocity of Kerberos, who has writhing snakes on his body and a dangerous snake-headed tail. The club and chain are conspicuous. The Attic artist has added a female spectator who may be either Athena or Persephone. The confident presentation on 2505-2506 suggests that the composition was already familiar, perhaps originally derived from Egyptian and Near Eastern tribute-bringing scenes ...

Beazley Archive 800006 [no image]

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Shape Name: CUP

Date: -575 to -525

Decoration: EX: COCKS

I: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, BIRD FLYING

Current Collection: -, Unknown

Previous Collections:

London, Erskine

Publication Record: Laconian iconography of the sixth century B.C. (Oxford, 1987): 12, FIG.8 (I)

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae: VI, PL.13, KERBEROS 25 (I)

PHOTOGRAPH(S) IN THE BEAZLEY ARCHIVE: 1 (COLOUR OF I)

Stibbe, C.M., Lakonische Vasenmaler des sechsten Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Amsterdam, 1972): 72.73

Gantz

p. 22

A Lakonian cup from the middle of the sixth century increases the number of heads to three and adds a snake for a tail as well (Erskine Coll),

p. 414

The same ferocity also appears on a Lakonian cup: a three-headed Kerberos showing lots of teeth and snarling in all directions occupies almost all the field; only around the edges do we see Herakles' hands holding a raised club and taut leash (Erskine Coll. no #) Thus Herakles' mastery of the beast is not as complete in these examples as it was on the Korinthian kotyle where Kerberus actually seemed afraid of the hero.

Ogden 2013a, p. 106

He is first found in clear three-headed form on the tondo of a fine Laconian cup of c.560–550 BC.¹⁸⁵ ... The most snake intensive of all Cerberi is that of the c.560-550 BC Laconian cup tondo: three rows of serpents sprout up and down along the length of his body, fringe his heads, and grow from the top of his heads too.¹⁹¹

¹⁸⁵ LIMC Herakles 2605 = Pipili 1987 fig. 8.

¹⁹¹ LIMC Herakles 2605 = Pipili 1987 fig. 8; cf. also 2606 (mid 6th cent. BC), 2610, 2611.

Schefold 1992, p. 129

The most menacing of all Kerberos pictures is a piece by the powerful Lakonian artist dubbed the Hunt Panter (fig. 149. from the Erskine collection in London); we have already seen his picture of the fight between Herakles and the lion (fig. 106), and referred to a fragment from his hand showing the Erymanthian boar (n. 232). Here for the first time Kerberos has three heads to which Sophokles, following epic authority, refers (Women of Trachis 1198); and he is completely covered with a shaggy coat of shakes, a feature already suggested on the Korinthian skyphos. In Attic vase-painting, by contrast, the hound is bicephalic and it is usually only his tail which has a snake head as finial.

Schefold 1992, p. 130

The Laconian cup is a magnificent realization of a creature which archaic imaginational invented but which could not easily represent -- the Korinthian skyphos had to simplify it. The Hunt painter's style retains that old-fashioned solemn monumentality which by 560, the approximate data of this cup, had long been abandoned by the Attic masters. The design is particularly daring: it is as if we are presented with a partial excerpt from a frieze. On the extreme right we see Heracles' left leg, and just above his two hands, which keep a firm grasp on club and chain. The chain, pulled taut, leads to a black ring attached to Kerberos' white collar, carefully fixed so as to secure all three necks. One of the heads, and the snake tail, rear up to threaten Heracles, while another head sniffs at Hermes, whose presence, as he walks ahead, is indicated by winged shoes on the far left.

Pipili, [in folder]

The cup once in the Erskine collection (12*, fig. 8) attributed to the Hunt painter and dated about 560-550, has an interior 'porthole' composition: a huge and wild Kerberos occupies the greatest part, while on the right only hands and a leg of Herakles can be seen. Similarily cut off by thre frame of the picture is Hermes on the left, identified by his winged boot. A fragmentary cup from Catania (13), by the same painter but of a later date, was decorated with the same subject.

Louvre A481

Athena, Heracles, and a two-headed Cerberus, with mane down his necks and back. Hermes (not shown in the photograph) stands to the left of Athena. An amphora (c. 575–525 BC) from Kameiros, Rhodes (Louvre A481).

[Two-headed, Athena, Hermes]

Beazley Archive 10772

Vase Number: 10772

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Shape Name: AMPHORA B

Provenance: RHODES, CAMIROS

Date: -575 to -525

Decoration: A: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, HERMES, ATHENA

B: WARRIOR BETWEEN ORIENTAL HORSEMEN (SHIELD DEVICE, LEG)

Current Collection: Paris, Musee du Louvre: A481

Previous Collections:

Paris, Musee du Louvre: MNC672

Publication Record: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: PARIS, LOUVRE 4, III.He.17, PLS.(195-196) 29.4-5, 30.1 Pottier, E., Vases antiques du Louvre (Paris, 1897-1922): PL.18 (DRAWINGS OF A AND B)

Louvre CA 2992

Athena, Hermes and Heracles, leading a two-headed Cerberus out of the underworld, as Persephone looks on. Hydria (c. 550–500 BC) attributed to the Leagros Group (Louvre CA 2992).

[Two-headed, Athena, Hermes, Column]

LIMC Herakles 2599ad

Monument ID 7151

= Hermes 515c

ABV 360, 10; Para 161, 10; Gerhard, AV Taf. 81.

Beazley Archive 302005 [no image]

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Shape Name: HYDRIA

Date: -550 to -500

Attributed To: LEAGROS GROUP by BEAZLEY

Decoration: BD: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, CHARIOT, ATHENA, DEVICE, EAGLE, HERMES, WOMAN (PERSEPHONE), COLUMN

SH: CHARIOT RACE, TERMA

Current Collection: Paris, Musee du Louvre: CA2992

Previous Collections:

Rome, Market

Publication Record: Beazley, J.D., Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford, 1956): 360.10

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae: V, PL.244, HERMES 515C (BD)

Hydria, Leagros Group

Hydria in Paris, Louvre, Inv. CA 2992, 520-500 v.Chr.; Beazley, ABV 360,10; Para 161.10; Leagrosgruppe; [See [3]]

Louvre E701

Heracles, wearing his characteristic lion-skin, club in right hand, leash in left, presenting a three-headed Cerberus, snakes coiling from his snouts, necks and front paws, to a frightened Eurystheus hiding in a giant pot. Caeretan hydria (c. 530 BC) from Caere (Louvre E701).

LIMC Herakles 2616

Monument ID 11929

Card ID 15104

= Kerberos 26

Smallwood,

[p. 92] 5. Herakles brings Kerberos to Eurystheus

2616.* Hydria, Caeretan bf. Paris, Louvre E 701. ... About 530-520 B. C. _ H. (club raised in r. hand, leash in l.) walking l. beside fierce three-headed Kerberos (snakes on necks, snouts, front paws), approaching Eurystheus who hides in giant pithos. Almost identical is Villa Giulia 50649; ...

[p. 98] Outside mainland Greece, few illustrations of the labour have been preserved from the archaic period. Two Caeretan hydrai of 530-520 B. C. (2616) depict the delivery of Kerberos to Eurystheus with a humorous twist: Eurystheus tries to hide in a giant pithos (inspired by H.'s delivery of the Erymanthian Boar; see 2105-2107. 2113-2134) as H. and the monster approach him. The subject is not found elsewhere, but the triple-headed Kerberos recalls the earlier Laconian (2605).

Gantz p. 22

[refering to the Argos cup:] The earliest artistic portrayal, a Middle Corinthian kotyle from Argos, shows only one head, but has snakes growing out all over his body (lost; cf. the Caeretan hydria Louvre E701).

Perseus Louvre E 701 (Vase)

Collection: Paris, Musée du Louvre

Summary: Main panel: Herakles, Kerberos, and Eurystheus. Rear handle zone: two eagles hunting a hare.

Ware: Caeretan

Context: From Caere

Date: ca. 530 BC

Dimensions: H. 0.43 m

Shape: Hydria

Region: Etruria

Period: Archaic

In the main panel, Herakles holds the three-headed Kerberos by a leash. The terrified Eurystheus has taken refuge in a large storage vessel. He rises out of it in further alarm, confronting Kerberos and a myriad of snakes that coil from the dog's heads and feet. Eurystheos is wearing a black short-sleeved garment with a red wrap over his right shoulder. His skin and Herakles's are rendered in white. The main body and first head of Kerberos are black; its second and third heads are red and white. Herakles is wearing a black short-sleeved chiton with his red lionskin on over it. In his right hand he holds his club high, while in his left he grips the red leash. The snakes are black with white dots.

Stansbury-O'Donnell, p. 282

Theoi

Louvre F204

[Two-headed, Athena]

Heracles, chain in left hand, his club laid aside, calms a two-headed Cerberus, which has a snake protruding from each of his heads, a mane down his necks and back, and a snake tail. Cerberus is emerging from a portico, which represents the palace of Hades in the underworld. Between them, a tree represents the sacred grove of Hades' wife Persephone. On the far left, Athena stands, left arm extended. Amphora (c. 525–510 BC) from Vulci (Louvre F204).

LIMC Herakles 2554

Monument ID 14629

= Kerberos 12

Smallwood

[p. 87] b) Herakles confronts Kerberos

Attic Vases

2554.* Amphora, rf. Paris Louvre F 204. From Vulci. - ... About 525-510 B. C. - H. crouching with chain lowered in hand, reaching out with r. to stroke Kerberos who emerges from portico; on l. Athena; between H. and Kerberos a tree and H.'s club resting at an angle. For H. and Athena without Persephone, cf. ...

[p. 98] In the last quarter of the 6th cent. B. C., Attic vase painters take an interest in a new aspect of the story, the capture of Kerberos. Two closely related amphorae (2554-2555) dated about 525-510 B. C., show H. outside the palace of Hades crouching before Kerberos who emerges from the portico on the r. With his club lain aside and the chain lowered in his l. hand, H. reaches out cautiously to stroke the hound which he clearly means to take by persuasion rather than force. On 2554 Athena stands on the l., making an encouraging gesture, but not actively intervening; the Underworld gods are not shown. ...

... a tree representing the grove of Persephone appears on 2554. 2555 and 2559.

Schefold 1992

p. 130

they show Herakles or Hermes calming Kerberos and enticing him out of Hades' palace without any struggle or resistance on the dogs part at all (see p. 39 above).

The finest of this series is the Andokides Painter's amphora in the Louvre, painted shortly after 520 (fig. 152); its delicate tensions are perfectly adapted to the subject. (Kneeling down is still the recommended technique for placating snarling Greek sheepdogs.^294a) Appropriately, the treatment is somewhat more restrained than on the Munich amphora showing Herakles feasting (fig. 47). A tree serves to designate the sacred grove which stands outside the palace of Hades, a miniture snake rears threateningly. Herakles holds out his left hand in a pacifying gesture, calming the dog to where it will allow itself to be collared; his lips are pursed in a reassur- [cont.]

p. 131

ing wisper. His lion-skin, worn over a red chiton, is a finely dotted, as on the Amazon amphora (figs. 138f.) and thinned paint is used for the mane. The danger involved in the enterprise is expressed by the Hero's sword and club, quiver and bow-case, and Athena's aegis too is more elaborate than in the painter's other Herakles pictures.

fig. 152

152 Heracles tranquillising Kerberos. Amphora by the Andokides Painter. c 520. Paris Louvre F 204.

Beazley Archive 200011

Date: -550 to -500

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: RED-FIGURE

Sub Technique: BLACK-FIGURE (B)

Shape Name: AMPHORA A

Provenance: ITALY, ETRURIA, VULCI

Date: -550 to -500

Attributed To: ANDOKIDES P by FURTWANGLER, ANDOKIDES P by NORTON, LYSIPPIDES P by BEAZLEY

Decoration: A: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, ATHENA, TREE, BUILDING (DORIC COLUMN AND FRIEZE) B: DIONYSOS WITH KANTHAROS AND VINE, MAENAD WITH OINOCHOE, SATYRS WITH KROTALA, KITHARA, WINESKIN

Current Collection: Paris, Musee du Louvre: F204

Perseus Louvre F 204 (Vase)

Collection: Paris, Musée du Louvre

Summary: Side A: Herakles and Cerberus (RF)Side B: Dionysos with maenad and satyrs (BF).

Ware: Attic Bilingual

Painter: Attributed to the Andokides Painter and Lysippides Painter

Context: Vulci

Date: ca. 520 BC - 510 BC

Dimensions: H. 0.586 m

Primary Citation: ABV, 254.1; ARV2, 4.11; Para, 321; Beazley Addenda 2, 150

Shape: Amphora

Beazley Number: 200011

Region: Etruria

Period: Archaic

Side A: Athena stands at the left extending a protective arm towards Herakles. She wears a necklace, a crested helmet with added purple details (which projects up into the ornamental band), elaborately patterned chiton with long sleeves and aegis framed with interlaced snake heads. She holds a spear in her other hand. Herakles, executing his last labor, approaches the monstrous two-headed dog, Cerberus. The long-haired guard dog stands at the columned facade / entrance to Hades (the underworld). Its upcurving tail ends in a snake head which cuts into the side framing band; snake heads emerge from the dog heads, and an added purple collar is on one of the necks. Herakles approaches and appeases the dog, bending down as if to pet it with one hand, while holding a chain collar to subdue it with the other. His beard is painted in added purple and he wears a chitoniskos in added purple over which is draped and belted the lion skin (the head of it is worn as a hood); its spots are in dilute glaze. A quiver and baldric with sword are at his back. A tree with added purple leaves is in the background.

Met 06.1021.78

[Two-headed, Athena, Hermes]

LIMC Herakles 2587ad

Monument ID 21898

= Gigantes 189

Beazley Archive 3764

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Shape Name: AMPHORA, NECK

Provenance: ITALY, ETRURIA, CERVETERI (?)

Date: -550 to -500

Decoration: A: GIGANTOMACHY, ATHENA AND GIANT, ARES (?), BOEOTIAN SHIELD

B: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, ATHENA (?), HERMES

Current Collection: New York (NY), Metropolitan Museum: 06.1021.78

Publication Record: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: NEW YORK, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 4, 39-40, PL.(765) 37.1-4

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae: IV, PL.126, GIGANTES 189 (A)

PHOTOGRAPH(S) IN THE BEAZLEY ARCHIVE: 5 (A, B)

Metropolitan Musem of Art 06.1021.78

Obverse, Athena, Herakles leading Kerberos, and Hermes

Munich 1493

Heracles, with club in his right hand raised over head, and leash in left hand, drives ahead of him, a two-headed Cerberus, with mane down his necks and back, and a snake tail. A neck-amphora (c. 530–515) from Vulci (Munich 1493).

Bucci Painter

LIMC Herakles 2604

Monument ID

Smallwood, p. 91

Attic Vase

2604.* Neck-amphora, bf. Munich, Antikenslg. 1993 (J 153). From Vulci. ... About 530-515 B. C. - H. with club above head; Kerberos standing with one head looking back.

Beazley Archive 301639

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Shape Name: AMPHORA, NECK

Provenance: ITALY, ETRURIA, VULCI

Date: -550 to -500

Attributed To: BUCCI P by BEAZLEY

Decoration: A: HERAKLES WITH KERBEROS ON CHAIN

B: HADES, UNDERWORLD, WINGED WOMEN WITH HYDRIAI POURING WATER INTO PITHOS (DANAIDS), SISYPHOS WITH STONE, ROCK

Current Collection: Munich, Antikensammlungen: 1493

Previous Collections:

Munich, Antikensammlungen: J153

Publication Record: Albinus, L., The House of Hades, Studies in Ancient Greek Eschatology (Aarhus, 2000): PL.4 (B)

Beazley, J.D., Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford, 1956): 316.7

Beazley, J.D., Paralipomena (Oxford, 1971): 137

Brommer, F., Heracles, The Twelve Labors of the Hero in Ancient Art and Literature (Translation, New York, 1986): PL.41 (A0

Carpenter, T.H., with Mannack, T., and Mendonca, M., Beazley Addenda, 2nd edition (Oxford, 1989): 85

Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: MUNICH, MUSEUM ANTIKER KLEINKUNST 7, 59-59, BEILAGE E4, PLS.(1569-1570,1576) 355.1-2, 356.1, :362.4

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae: V, PL.98, HERAKLES 2604 (A)

Peifer, E., Eidola und andere mit d. Sterben verbundene Flugelwesen i.d. att. Vasenmalerei in spatarchaischer und klassischer Zeit (Frankfurt, 1989): PL.4.9, NO.57 (DRAWING OF A)

Walter-Karydi, E. (ed.), Myths, Texts, Images, Homeric epics and ancient Greek art, Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on the Odyssey, Ithaca, September 15-19, 2009 (Ithaca, 2010): 213, FIG.2 (B)

Walter-Karydi, E., Die Athener und ihre Graber (1000-300 v.Chr.) (Berlin, 2015): 136, FIG.69 (B)

Wunsche, R. (ed.), Herakles, Herkules, Staatliche Antikensammlungen Munchen (Munich, 2003): 153, FIG.20.5-6, 407, CAT.84 (A, B, :COLOUR OF A AND B)

Bretschneider

Munich 2306

[Two-headed, Athena, Hermes, Persephone, Column]

LIMC Herakles 2602

Monument ID 7159

Beazley Archive 202086

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: RED-FIGURE

Shape Name: AMPHORA A

Provenance: ITALY, ETRURIA, VULCI

Date: -525 to -475

Attributed To: MUNICH 2306, P OF by BEAZLEY

Decoration: A: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, ATHENA, HERMES, PERSEPHONE (?), COLUMN

B: APOLLO WITH LYRE AND LETO IN CHARIOT, ARTEMIS, WOMAN

Current Collection: Munich, Antikensammlungen: 2306

Previous Collections:

Munich, Antikensammlungen: J406

Publication Record: Antike Kunst: 17 (1974) PL.6.2 (A)

Beazley, J.D., Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, 2nd edition (Oxford, 1963): 225.1

Beazley, J.D., Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, 1st ed. (Oxford, 1942): 152.1

Beazley, J.D., Attische Vasenmaler des rotfigurigen Stils (Tubingen, 1925): 93

Burn, L., and Glynn, R., Beazley Addenda (Oxford, 1982): 99

Carpenter, T.H., with Mannack, T., and Mendonca, M., Beazley Addenda, 2nd edition (Oxford, 1989): 198

Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: MUNICH, MUSEUM ANTIKER KLEINKUNST 4, 20-21, PLS.(560-563,566) 182.1-2, 183.1-2, 184.1-2, 185.1-2, 188.9

Lau, T., Brunn, H., Krell, P., Die griechischen Vasen (Leipzig, 1877): PLS.12.3, 13.4 (PART)

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae: VIII, PL.653, PERSEPHONE 279 (PART OF A)

Wunsche, R. (ed.), Herakles, Herkules, Staatliche Antikensammlungen Munchen (Munich, 2003): 150, FIG.20.1, 407, CAT.83 (A, B, COLOUR OF A)

CAVI Collection: Munich 2306.

CAVI Lemma: RF amphora. From Vulci. Painter of Munich 2306{1}. Ca. 500.

CAVI Subject: A: Heracles and Cerberus. B: Apollo in a chariot, with Leto and Artemis.

CAVI Inscriptions: B: nonsense: above the horses: οκχτοειοι.

CAVI Footnotes: {1} akin to the Nikoxenos Painter (Beazley).

Rome 48329

[Two-headed, Athena, Hermes, Persephone column]

LIMC Herakles 2560 [no record]

Beazley Archive 302127

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Shape Name: AMPHORA, NECK

Provenance: ITALY, ETRURIA, CERVETERI

Date: -550 to -500

Attributed To: ACHELOOS P by BEAZLEY

LEAGROS GROUP by BEAZLEY

Decoration: A: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, ATHENA, HERMES KNEELING, WOMAN (PERSEPHONE) IN BUILDING

B: FIGHT

Current Collection: Rome, Mus. Naz. Etrusco di Villa Giulia: 48329

Publication Record: Beazley, J.D., Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford, 1956): 370.132

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae: V, PL.93, HERAKLES 2560 (A)

Taranto 140601

[Three-headed]

LIMC Herakles 2615

= Kerberos 29

Texas, McCoy Col. (once Castle Ashby 19)

[Two-headed, Athena, Hermes]

LIMC Herakles 2611

Beazley Archive 2587

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Shape Name: AMPHORA B

Date: -550 to -500

Decoration: A: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, SHIELD DEVICE, IVY WREATH

B: MAN SEATED, WARRIOR AND MEN, SHIELD DEVICE, STAR

Current Collection: Texas, McCoy

Previous Collections:

Northampton, Castle Ashby: 19

London, Market, Christie's

Publication Record: Christie, Manson and Woods, sale catalogue: 2.7.1980, 126, :127, NO.82 (A, B)

Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: NORTHAMPTON, CASTLE ASHBY, 12, PL.(675) 20.1-2

PHOTOGRAPH(S) IN THE BEAZLEY ARCHIVE: 2 (A, B)

Toledo 1950.261

[Two-headed, Athena, Hermes, Hades, Persephone]

LIMC Heracles 2593

Monument ID 7137

= Hades 140

Beazley Archive 701

Vase Number: 701

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Shape Name: HYDRIA

Provenance: ITALY, ETRURIA, VULCI

Attributed To: KARITHAIOS P by BOTHMER

Decoration: BD: WARRIOR IN CHARIOT, CHARIOTEER WITH BOEOTIAN SHIELD, WARRIOR, SHIELD DEVICE, TRIPOD PR: LION BETWEEN BOARS, BETWEEN PALMETTES SH: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, HADES, PERSEPHONE, HERMES, ATHENA

Current Collection: Toledo (OH), Museum of Art: 50.261

Publication Record: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: TOLEDO, TOLEDO MUSEUM OF ART 1, 14-15, PLS.(800,802) 20.2, 22.1-2 Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae: IV, PL.222, HADES 140 (S) Moon, W. & Berge, L., (eds.), Greek Vase Painting in Midwestern Collections (Chicago, 1979): 80-81, NO.48 PHOTOGRAPH(S) IN THE BEAZLEY ARCHIVE: 5 (BD, PR, SH, PARTS)

Perseus Toledo 1950.261 (Vase)

Painter: Attributed to the Karithaios Painter

Context: From Vulci

Date: ca. 530 BC - ca. 520 BC

Shoulder: Herakles and Cerberus. Herakles (second from right) moves right and looks back at Cerberus whom he leads on a leash. He holds the leash in his right hand and brandishes a club with his left. He wears a baldric over his right shoulder, a sword at his right side and a quiver at his left. Athena, at the far right, stands facing Herakles, her right hand raised; in her left hand she holds a spear pointed downward. Hermes (third from the left) stands behind Cerberus, his left arm raised, the kerykeion in his right. Persephone stands behind Hermes, her left hand raised. Her right arm is bent at the elbow; the fingers of her extended right hand point downward. Behind her, at the far left, stands Pluto. He holds a staff in his left hand; his right arm and hand are muffled in his himation. Added red: Folds in the garments of Pluto, Persephone, Hermes and Athena; the beards of Pluto, Hermes and Herakles; the upper edge of Athena's helmet-crest; dots on the skirt of Herakles' chiton, on the flaps of his quiver and on the ruff of the lion skin; Cerberus' collar. Added white: The flesh of Persephone and Athena; alternate locks of hair on Cerberus' mane; the teeth of the lion skin; the hilt of Herakles' sword, the chape of its scabbard and baldric; dots on Athena's clothing.

Moon, Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections Toledo 1950.261

Theoi M12.3 HERAKLES & KERBEROS

Toledo 1969.371

[Three headed?, Athena, Hermes, column]

LIMC Heracles 2599 [no image]

Monument ID 21913

Beazley Archive 302006

Perseus Toledo 1969.371 (Vase)

Collection: Toledo Museum of Art

Summary: Main panel: Herakles and CerberusShoulder: departure of warriors and hunters

Ware: Attic Black Figure

Painter: Attributed to the Leagros Group, Painter S

Date: ca. 510 BC

Primary Citation: ABV, 360, 11

Shape: Hydria

Period: Late Archaic

Decoration Description:

Main panel: Herakles and Cerberus. On the right, an Ionic column with entablature represents the entrance to the house of Hades. Cerberus is emerging from the house; with a white collar around his shoulders, he is led on a white chain, ending in a tassel, by Herakles. Cerberus has three heads, one entirely visible, one with visible eye and ear and mane, and one visible only as incised strokes under Herakles's left arm. Holding the chain in his left hand, Herakles walks left but turns his head back to look at the house or some invisible figure within. He raises his club in his right hand. He is dressed in his lionskin, a chitoniskos, and a baldric over his left shoulder, from which hang bow and quiver. Next to Herakles on the left crouches Hermes, who raises his left arm as if coaxing the dog. Hermes is bearded and is wearing a petasos, chitoniskos, nebris and boots. A cloak is draped over his left arm, while his right hand holds a kerykeion. Athena waits behind Hermes, upright with her left arm raised. Her right hand grasps her spear, held in the same position as Hermes's kerykeion. She wears a high-crested Attic helmet with neck-guard, a peplos and aegis devoid of gorgoneion. Athena's chariot team is visible from the front, standing behind her on the far left, with an owl perched on the rein guard.

Vatican 372

[Two-headed, Athena, Hades, Persephone, column]

LIMC Heracles 2561 [no image]

Monument ID 7133

Smallwood, p. 87

2561. (= Hades 137*) Amphora, bf. Vatican 372. Fro Cervetri. ... Leagros Group; ... About 520-510 B.C. - H. with club (no chain) lowered in r. hand, making a restraining gesture with l., either at Kerberos or at Hades, who stands beside Kerberos, making a similar geature at Persephone, seated in portico; on l. Athena.

Beazley Archive 302102

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Shape Name: AMPHORA B

Provenance: ITALY, ETRURIA, CERVETERI

Date: -550 to -500

Attributed To: ANTIOPE GROUP by BEAZLEY

LEAGROS GROUP by BEAZLEY

Decoration: A: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, ATHENA, OLD MAN WITH SCEPTRE (HADES), WOMAN WITH POLOS SEATED ON STOOL IN BUILDING (PERSEPHONE), NONSENSE INSCRIPTIONS

B: ARIADNE MOUNTING CHARIOT, DIONYSOS WITH VINE, WOMAN, PANTHER

Current Collection: Vatican City, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco Vaticano: 372

Publication Record: Angiolillo, S., Arte e cultura nell'Atene di Pisistrato e dei Pisistratidi (Bari, 1997): 138, FIG.76 (A)

Beazley, J.D., Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford, 1956): 368.107

Beazley, J.D., Paralipomena (Oxford, 1971): 162

Carpenter, T.H., Art and Myth in Ancient Greece (London, 1991): FIG.216 (A)

Carpenter, T.H., with Mannack, T., and Mendonca, M., Beazley Addenda, 2nd edition (Oxford, 1989): 98

Fiorentini, G., Caltabiano, M., and Calderone, A. (eds.), Archeologia del Mediterraneo, Studi in onore di Ernesto de Miro (Rome, 2003): 135, FIG.5 (A)

Immerwahr, H., Attic Script, A Survey (Oxford, 1990): PL.23.93 (PART OF A)

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae: PL.221, HADES 137 (A)

Schefold 1992

p. 131

A slightly later Leagros Group amphora in the Vatican (fig. 153) takes a similar approach, though here we have a fuller veraion of the story than the single attention-grabbing extract that the Andokides Painter gave us. Persephone sits in her palace; her husband Hades is shown as an old man with white hair and a bald patch, but not the dark locks on his forehead that characterise him in later art. Sceptre in hand, he turns away from the dangerous scene before him. Neither he nor Persephone do anything to prevent Herakles — rather the contrary, for their own gestures seem to echo the soothing motions that Herakles is making. One of Kerberos' heads is turned back hesitantly, but the other is already half won over and looks up to Herakles; he, for his part, is not entirely confident that the calming gesture of his left hand will do the trick, and holds his club ready as a back-up. The figure of Athena, too, has aquired an extra detail; she has put her shield [cont. p. 132]

fig. 153

153 Heracles makes off with Kerberos, watched by Hades and Persephone. Amphora, Leagros Group; 520-510. Vatican 372.

p. 132

[cont.] down and propped it against the background. On other pictures she is replaced by Hermes, Escort of the Dead; he holds the chain for the dog, and sometimes either he or Herkles may enjoin silence with a finger held to the lips.

The wide variety of available motifs can perhaps be explained on the assumption that there existed ...

Worcester 1935.59

LIMC Herakles 2610

Beazley Archive 351415

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Shape Name: OLPE

Date: -525 to -475

Attributed To: HONOLULU CLASS by BEAZLEY

Decoration: BD: HERAKLES AND KERBEROS, HERMES

Current Collection: Worcester (MA), Art Museum: 1935.59

Publication Record: Beazley, J.D., Paralipomena (Oxford, 1971): 193.2

Carpenter, T.H., with Mannack, T., and Mendonca, M., Beazley Addenda, 2nd edition (Oxford, 1989): 113

Uhlenbrock, J.P., Herakles (1986): PL.13

Perseus Worcester 1935.39 (Vase)

Buitron, Worcester 1935.39

The twelfth labor which Eurystheus set for Herakles was to fetch Cerberus, the guardian of Hades. Herakles, in lion skin, is shown approaching Cerberus from behind and grasping his tail which ends in a snake head. The monster turns one of his heads towards Herakles while Hermes grasps the snake forelock of his other head and prepares to throw a noose around him. Two of the monster's feet end in snakes, and two are lion claws; a "mane" runs down his neck and back. Above the scene is a palmette lotus chain.

Attributed to the Honolulu Class [Beazley] ca. 530 - 500 B. C.

The guardian monster Cerberus was generally reputed to have many dog heads, the tail of a dragon, and on his back the heads of snakes (Apollod. 2.5.12). Representations on vases almost always show Cerberus with only two heads, as is the case on the famous representation of the scene by the Andokides Painter (Louvre F 204; ABV, 4, no. 11).

Other

Heraklion Museum 259 Cerberus and Hades/Serapis marble statue

Cerberus and Hades/Serapis. Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete, Greece.

LIMC Kerberos 66 [No image]

Monument ID 13481

Woodford, p. 29

Marble statue. Herakleion Mus. 259. — Hornbostel pl. 30, 46. — Roman. — Seated K. with heads looking front and to both sides, accompanying standing Hades/Serapis.

Shield-band relief from Olympia

LIMC Herakles 3519

Monument ID 10523

1966 [in folder]

p. 68

A shield-relief [Fig 24] shows us Heracles as, with drawn sword, he strides towards the entreating [cont.]

p. 69

[Fig.] 24. Heracles with Theseseus and Perithous in Hades. Shield-relief. Width of strip 6.2 cm (2 7/16 in.). c. 580-570 B.C.—Olympia

prisoners, determined to deliver the unhappy men by force. It was not until the fifth century that the legend received its new form in which Theseus alone is released without Perithous.

Schefold 1992, p. 129

Only a little later [than the lost Argos cup] is a shield-relief on which Herakles, in the course of his expedition to Hades, is on the point of rescuing Theseus and Peirithous from the thrones on which they sit locked rigid (M&L p. 69 fig 24); the two of them had gone to the Underworld in pursuit of Persephone, for Peirithous wanted to grab a daughter of Zeus for himself in the way that his friend had seized Helen. Both of these marriage projects ended in disaster.

Gantz, p. 22

More firmly datable than either of these shadowy epics is a shield-band relief from Olympia of about 560 B.C. (B 2198). Here two figures labeled "Theseus" and "Peirithoos" sit together on a chair, hands held out in supplication, while a third figure approaches and prepares to draw his sword. The name is worn away, but this is certainly Herakles. What is less clear is whether he draws his sword to confront Hades by force as he prepares to rescue his friends, or imagines that he can cut them free with it, or wields it merely because the artist wished to add this embellishment to an otherwise static scene. Neither can we be sure that he succeded in rescuing both heroes, although the artist's failure to distinguish between them might be thought to imply that result.²⁵

Olympia Cerberus Metope

Perseus Olympia, Cerberus Metope (Sculpture)

ca. 470 BC - ca. 457 BC

Olympia, Temple of Zeus

The eleventh metope, last but one on the East side, represents what is usually considered the final Labor, that of bringing Cerberus from Hades. Because of the difficulty of the task, Herakles is usually accompanied by Hermes or Athena or both of his patrons. In the Olympia metope, Hermes occupies the right side of the metope, as indicated by his right foot and the outline of his legs. His purpose was to charm the monstrous dog, who usually hid in a corner. Here only Cerberus' forepart is represented, as Herakles struggles to pull him out. The dog has been collared and the two are on their way out of the Underworld, the deed nearly completed. The beast is presented in normal canine form, completely unexaggerated except perhaps by size. Earlier representations give the dog two or three heads. The earliest preserved images can be traced only as far as the sixth century, though the literary references extend back to Homer (Hom. Il. 8.364ff.). The story is repeated in literature throughout the Greek period.