Cerberus

• the three- (acc. to others, the hundred-) headed monster Cerberus, Lucr. 3, 10; 3, 24; Verg. G. 4, 483; id. A. 6, 417; Prop. 3 (4), 5, 44; Hor. C. 2, 19, 29; 3, 11, 17; Ov. M. 4, 450; Hyg. Fab. 151 (cf. Verg. A. 6, 400; Hor. C. 2, 13, 34); Cic. Tusc. 1, 5, 10 al. —Hence,
• II Cerbĕrĕus, a, um, adj., of or pertaining to Cerberus: facies canum, Lucr. 4, 735: os, Ov. M. 4, 501: latratus, Stat. S. 5, 1, 249: portae, i.e. of the Lower World, id. Th. 8, 56.

(Κέρβερος), the many-headed dog that guarded the entrance of Hades, is mentioned as early as the Homeric poems, but simply as " the dog," and without the name of Cerberus. (Il. 8.368, Od. 11.623.) Hesiod, who is the first that gives his name and origin, calls him (Theog. 311) fifty-headed and a son of Typhaon and Echidna. Later writers describe him as a monster with only three heads, with the tail of a serpent and a mane consisting of the heads of various snakes. (Apollod. 2.5.12; Eurip. Here. fur. 24, 611; Verg. A. 6.417; Ov. Met. 4.449.) Some poets again call him many-headed or hundred-headed. (Hor. Carm. 2.13. 34; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 678; Senec. Here. fur. 784.) The place where Cerberus kept watch was according to some at the mouth of the Acheron, and according to others at the gates of Hades, into which he admitted the shades, but never let them out again. [L.S]

• , Κέρβερος, in fable, Cerberus, who guarded the entrance of Hades, a dog with three heads, V., O.; or with many heads (centiceps), H.

(Κέρβερος). The famous dog of Hades, the fruit of Echidna's union with Typhon. He was stationed at the entrance of hell, as a watchful keeper, to prevent the living from entering the infernal regions, and the dead from escaping from their confinement. Orpheus lulled him to sleep with his lyre; and Heracles dragged him from hell in the performance of his twelfth and last labour. (See Heracles.) The poets differ in their descriptions of this fabled animal. Hesiod assigns him fifty heads, calling him κύων πεντηκοντακάρηνος. Sophocles (Trach. 1114) styles him Ἅιδου τρίκρανον σκύλακα, “the three-headed dog of Pluto,” and in this last account the Latin poets generally coincide, describing him also as having serpents coiled about his neck. Horace, however, calls him belua centiceps ( Od. ii. 13, 14), either by poetic amplification, or else in accordance with some Greek authority. Champollion traces a curious analogy between the Egyptian and the Grecian mythology as regards the dog of Hades.