Cerberus
The hound of Hades, son of Typhon and Echidna, who fawns on those who enter and devours those who try to leave; fifty-headed in Hesiod, three-headed with a dragon's tail in Apollodorus and the Roman poets, nameless in Homer. Heracles dragged him up to Eurystheus and brought him back; the Sibyl drugged him for Aeneas.
Why this wins its question: Makes the head-count a sourced variant and cites Pausanias's own remark that Homer never named the dog, which is exactly the "according to whom?" an encyclopaedia entry on Cerberus cannot answer.
Key takeaways
- Fifty heads in Hesiod, three in Apollodorus, Virgil and Ovid; the count is a variant, not a fact.
- Homer has the hound and the labour but no name; Pausanias noticed and said so.
- Hesiod's Cerberus is a trap, welcoming in and eating on the way out (Theog. 770–774).
- Heracles takes him without weapons and returns him; Aeneas drugs him and passes.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Hesiod: Echidna, joined to "Typhaon the terrible", bore Orthus and then "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" (Theog. 306–312).
His post and his trick: before "the echoing halls of the god of the lower-world, strong Hades, and of awful Persephone", "a fearful hound guards the house in front, 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" (Theog. 767–774).
Apollodorus's Cerberus "had three heads of dogs, the tail of a dragon, and on his back the heads of all sorts of snakes". As his twelfth labour Heracles descended at Taenarum, asked Pluto for the beast and was told to take him "provided he mastered him without the use of the weapons which he carried"; he found him "at the gates of Acheron", gripped his head in cuirass and lion skin though "the dragon in its tail bit him", carried him up through Troezen, showed him to Eurystheus, "and carried him back to Hades" (Apollod. 2.5.12).
Homer never names him. Athena recalls that Eurystheus sent Heracles "to the house of Hades the Warder, to bring from out of Erebus the hound of loathed Hades" (Il. 8.366–368), and Heracles' shade says "he once sent me hither to fetch the hound of Hades ... The hound I carried off and led forth from the house of Hades" (Od. 11.623–626). Pausanias observed this: 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 ... Later poets gave the name Cerberus, and ... they say that he had three heads" (Paus. 3.25.6).
Pausanias also preserves Hecataeus's rationalisation: "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 ... that was brought by Heracles to Eurystheus"; Pausanias notes there is no underground road through the cave at Taenarum (Paus. 3.25.5).
The Roman poets: Virgil's "Cerberus, with triple-throated roar" lies at vast length in his cave with serpents writhing about his neck; the Sibyl throws him "a loaf with honeyed herbs imbued and drowsy essences", he gapes "his three fierce mouths", and Aeneas passes while sleep buries the warder (Aen. 6.417). Ovid derives aconite from him: dragged by Hercules "with chains of adamant ... from the dreary edge of Tartarus", he "shook the air with triple howls" and his white foam grew into the poison Medea offered Theseus (Met. 7.404).
Questions answered
- Who were the parents of Cerberus?
- Hesiod: Echidna, joined to "Typhaon the terrible", bore Orthus and then "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" (Theog. 306–312). source
- How many heads does Cerberus have?
- Apollodorus's Cerberus "had three heads of dogs, the tail of a dragon, and on his back the heads of all sorts of snakes". As his twelfth labour Heracles descended at Taenarum, asked Pluto for the beast and was told to take him "provided he mastered him without the use of the weapons which he carried"; he found him "at the gates of Acheron", gripped his head in cuirass and lion skin though "the dragon in its tail bit him", carried him up through Troezen, showed him to Eurystheus, "and carried him back to Hades" (Apollod. 2.5.12). source
- What does Cerberus do at the gates of Hades?
- His post and his trick: before "the echoing halls of the god of the lower-world, strong Hades, and of awful Persephone", "a fearful hound guards the house in front, 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" (Theog. 767–774). source
- How did Heracles capture Cerberus?
- Apollodorus's Cerberus "had three heads of dogs, the tail of a dragon, and on his back the heads of all sorts of snakes". As his twelfth labour Heracles descended at Taenarum, asked Pluto for the beast and was told to take him "provided he mastered him without the use of the weapons which he carried"; he found him "at the gates of Acheron", gripped his head in cuirass and lion skin though "the dragon in its tail bit him", carried him up through Troezen, showed him to Eurystheus, "and carried him back to Hades" (Apollod. 2.5.12). source
- Does Homer name Cerberus?
- Homer never names him. Athena recalls that Eurystheus sent Heracles "to the house of Hades the Warder, to bring from out of Erebus the hound of loathed Hades" (Il. 8.366–368), and Heracles' shade says "he once sent me hither to fetch the hound of Hades ... The hound I carried off and led forth from the house of Hades" (Od. 11.623–626). Pausanias observed this: 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 ... Later poets gave the name Cerberus, and ... they say that he had three heads" (Paus. 3.25.6). source
- How did Aeneas get past Cerberus?
- The Roman poets: Virgil's "Cerberus, with triple-throated roar" lies at vast length in his cave with serpents writhing about his neck; the Sibyl throws him "a loaf with honeyed herbs imbued and drowsy essences", he gapes "his three fierce mouths", and Aeneas passes while sleep buries the warder (Aen. 6.417). Ovid derives aconite from him: dragged by Hercules "with chains of adamant ... from the dreary edge of Tartarus", he "shook the air with triple howls" and his white foam grew into the poison Medea offered Theseus (Met. 7.404). source