![]() ![]() So, it became necessary to get rid of Cerberus in order to proceed with her quest for Persephone. ![]() But, as usual, she met Cerberus standing guard at the gates of Hades in light of which Demeter could never possibly enter his territory. ![]() So, Demeter decided to enter the underworld in order to look for her daughter and take her back. ♠ Persephone, the daughter of Demeter was abducted by Hades and was forcibly made to marry him. But the king was so terrified on seeing the hell-hound that he asked Heracles to take it back to Hades with immediate effect. Cerberus was then paraded on the streets of the Mycenaean capital and then taken to the king as decided. The only condition put forth by Eurystheus and Hades what that Heracles had to capture the creature unarmed which the demi-god managed to do. His twelfth and final labor was to capture Cerberus and to parade him openly in the Mycenaean capital and then to take the creature to the king. In order to be released, he was assigned with a set of twelve labors that he had to perform according to the rules which were set. ♠ King Eurystheus had arrested and imprisoned Heracles for killing his own children after he was forced into a state of insanity by Hera, the wife of Zeus. However, one cannot ignore the deadly and fierce aspect of the creature due to which he was stationed where he was. Cerberus in Greek MythsĬerberus appears in numerous myths of the ancient Greeks, most of which put across a point that it was possible either to lull, subdue or capture the creature, as was proven by many at a number of times. This also applies to the dead and their souls that reside in the underworld. If any such effort is made by any individual, he may have to face grievous consequences for the same. The myth of Cerberus attempts to highlight the fact that life and death are two distinct concepts which can never overlap with one another. In a way, Cerberus stands for the sharp line of distinction between the world of the mortals and the world of the dead. It has been mentioned that Cerberus fed on raw meat of the humans and so he ate all those mortals who dared to cross the Styx in order to enter the realm of Hades. Another theory says that the three heads of the hell-hound symbolize the past, the present and the future. Some classical sources state that these heads represent three phases of human life, viz. He is Hades’ most loyal companion and servant. Legend says that Cerberus was so dreadful to behold that anyone who tried to look at him with a bare eye, was turned instantly to stone.Īs mentioned above, Cerberus is the hound of Hades with three heads. But this kind of representation fits perfectly owing to the kind of tasks that the creature is assigned with. This kind of composition makes the creature appear extremely monstrous and fierce. Some of the later sources describe Cerberus as having three canine heads, a dog’s body, a mane made of snakes and a dragon’s tail. Echidna, on the other hand, is a half-woman-half-serpent monster in the Greek tradition, who had supposedly mothered all the monsters appearing in the mythology. He was the son of Gaia, mother earth of the Greek myths. Typhon was a winged giant bearing a tail of a snake who could control and command the storms. He also states that he was a son of Typhon and Echidna. Hesiod, in 7th – 8th century B.C., refers to the creature as being fifty-headed. Interestingly enough, the Homeric literature refers to a dog who guards Hades’ entrance but refers to him simply as ‘a dog’ and not ‘Cerberus, the three-headed dog’.
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