(continued)
(1) History: The first time
Kerberos appears is in Homer's Odyssee. There he is without a special name called only "
dog of Hades". The name "
Kerberos" we find first in Hesiod's Theogony. There he was already the guardian of the Underworld.
His parents were Typhaon and Echidna, the snake-shaped monster, mother of many other monsters like the Lernaean
Hydra, the two-headed
dog Orthos of Geryon, the Chimaira or the
Sphinx.
(2) Etymology: There are found several different explanations for
his name: The name should be composed of
kreas = meat and
boros = devourer.
Wikipedia says that "
Kerberos" means "
daimon of the pit". But I think the great
doyen Wilamowitz is right who regards the name as onomatopoetic: The name is imitating the ferocious growling of the
dog.
(3) Appearance: The most striking of
his shape are the three heads. But just this feature has been established only in the course of years. At Hesiod he has
had initially 50 heads, later only one!
Pindar writes of 100 heads, and so does Horaz. Sometimes it is said that
his fur exists of 100 snakes and he should
had have a snake-tail with
head which has bitten
Herakles. These all are poetical inventions.The description with the 3 heads (triceps, triformis), we are familiar with, is originated from the Greek tragic poets and from Apollodor (2nd cent. BC). We recognize a strange relationship to the triform
Hekate who as companions has dogs too!
The connection with snakes can be ascribed to their sepulcral-chthonic character (sepulcral = belonging to the funeral culture)
Already Roscher has stated that the number of heads, generally the entire appearance of the
Kerberos, isn't originated from the old popular belief but is literary decoration. On early Corinthian depictions he mostly has one
head, on Attic vases he appears mostly dicephalic (with 2 heads).
(4) Tasks: Initially
Kerberos was a companion of Hades, similar to the
eagle as companion of
Zeus (Aischylos Prom. 1002 calls the
eagle "winged
dog of
Zeus"; look at the dogs of
Hekate!). "
Dog" in archaic times occurs too in the meaning "servant". The statue of Hades Borghese shows
Kerberos peacefully clung to the legs of Hades. Actually Hades as
chthonic deity should have snakes as companions. We know of old depictions of
Kerberos where he is entwined by snakes which were not joined to him. The honey cake mentioned below is rather an offering for snakes. Here we see an archaic residual of the original conception. Hekataios of Milet says that at the Tanairon, an entrance to Hades, an horrible
snake has dwelled which was called "
Dog of Hades", because the bitten victim immediately
had to die by its poison. This
snake was brought to Erystheus by
Herakles (Paus. III, 25.3). This story does match most likely the old popular belief. We see, that the
Kerberos, as we know him, was not established in the popular belief, and that poets could arrange him in that shape which serves best their interests. The poet looks for effects even if they sometimes are not quite lucky. A tail-wagging hound of hell is a
bit "tasteless" (Roscher).
Then from the companion of Hades he developed to the guardian of the underworld. It is said that he has welcomed each visitor more or less friendly, but then has left him no more off the Hades. By terrific growling, loud barking and even biting he has pushed him back. It was said too that he has ripped and devoured him! Dante has set
Kerberos into the 3rd
circle of the Inferno because of
his voracity (Comedia Divina, Canto VI).
5. Outsmarting Kerberos: But we have some examples where he has been outsmarted. Orpheus succeeded by
his chanting when he tried to bring back
his wife Eurydike. The sweetness of
his singing lulled
Kerberos and he fell asleep.
Psyche and
Aeneas succeeded by feeding him with honey cakes which
Kerberos was passionated about. These actually rather an offering for
chthonic snakes!
Hermes succeeded by
his kerykeion or by water from Lethe, the underworld river of oblivion.
In Christian-Byzantine times further visits of Hades are described:
Mazari ("flourishing" c. AD 1415) has written a satire novel: Mazari's Journey to Hades, or, Interviews with dead
men about certain officials of the imperial court.
Then the "Timarion": a Pseudo-Lukian satirical dialogue, where Timarion, the protagonist of the novel, is abducted to the Hades where he
met Christians who are a sect among others (author perhaps Michael Psellus, 11th cenrury AD).
I want to mention that similar dogs are found in the Indian Vedas and Upanishads too. But there is no mythological connection to our
Kerberos at all.
Doorways to Hades:In
Greek mythology we find several doorways to the underworld, which not only are mythological places but geographical localities. The best-known are
(1) at the Cape Tainaron (Matapan), the most south point of the
Peloponnesos(2) near Hermione (Ermioni) on the southern
Peloponnesos(3) near the city of Herakleia (today Eregli) at the southern coast of the Black Sea and
(4) at the Avernian Lake near the ancient Greek city of Cumae near Naples.
According to a report in the
German magazine "Spiegel" no. 3/1964, p.80/81, the doorway to the underworld was found at the Avernian crater lake by the archaeologists Dr.Paget and
Jones, two NATO navy personnel. They have entered the doorway and climbed down to the river Styx, where they have photographed the river. "The most spectacular archaeological discovery of the 20th century!" The doorway consists of volcanic caves which were passed off by priests as entrance to Hades (Official bulletin No. 201 of the NATO Headquarter).
Generally Tainaron is named as place of Herakles' descent to hell. But all reports agree that
Herakles has used a different way when he came back.
Reemerging from hell:Several locations are cited for Herakles' reemerging from hell. That's probably because these cities wished to be connected to the labours of
Herakles which was seen as special honour (von Ranke-Graves).
(1) Often Troizen is mentioned, at the sanctuary of
Artemis Soteira (Pausanias, Apollodor)
(2) then the
chthonic area of Hermione where the way to Hades is said to be so short that
there was no need to give Charon a coin for the passage. This place was seen by the
great Wilamowitz as the most original!
(3) According to a Boiotian myth the
area of the Laphystian
Zeus on the mountain
Laphystios. Here in ancient times was located the statue of
Herakles Charops, of
"
Herakles with the glossy eyes" (Pausanias, Ovid)
(4) the Thesprotian Hades region at the river Acheron (most probably euhemeristic).
(5) then Tainaron again.
(6) Especially remarkable is the localization of the reemerging place to Herakleia Pontika
(today Eregli). Here at the Acherusian Cape (today Cape Baba) an
arm of the underworld
river Acheron is said to come to the surface. Hence the linguistic relation to the Acheron
and the Acherousian Lake of the Epirotic Thesprotis, which in ancient times was regarded
as River of the Dead. In a gorge a cave was located leading deep into the inner of the
earth, called by the inhabitants "Grotto of Hades" and identified as the place where
Herakles has come back from the underworld with
Kerberos. According to Apollonios of
Rhodos (Argonautika II, 726-749) this place was visited by the Argonaus. Xenophon too
has visited it 355 BC on
his way back to
Greece.and was shown the site on the
Acherousian peninsula where
Herakles has entered the Hades. The Acherousian Caves
were shown
still today. They are signposted as "Cehennemagzi Magaralari" and a touristic
attraction. Here the
Byzantine Christians have held Eucharistic celebrations and today
sometimes concerts take place.
About the selection of Herakleia Pontika as exit from the Hades there is an aitiological myth:
When
Kerberos was fetched from the underworld he has sprayed snorting with rage
his slobber, and where it dropped down to the ground helmet flower was sprouting, Akoniton (
Lat. Aconitum), which appears in large numbers around Herakleia Pontika (
Strab.
XII 3, 7; Plin.
nat. XXVI, 4). The botanical name cames from the cave of Akonai near Mariandyne at the Black Sea coast, or the mountain of Akonitos. Ovid in
his Metamorphoses confirms this report, but relocates the
work of
Herakles to the northern coast of the Black Sea by narrating that Medea has brought Aconitum
ab oris Scythicis (Ov.
met.
VII 406-413). Aconitum is the most poisonous
plant in Europe. It contains Aconitin, an alkaloid and one of the strongest
plant toxins at all, stronger than strychnine. Already 3-6mg can kill an adult man. It was used by Thessalian witches as flying ointment. Because it makes
hands and feet unfeeling they
had the impression of flying. The
plant was called Hekateis too because it should have been
Hekate who has used it first (Ranke-Graves).
When Erystheus beheld
Kerberos brought to the upperworld he fled in a pithos (a kind of a big barrel) as he did before when he saw the
Erymanthian boar. It is told that
Herakles has brought back the
dog to the Hades. According to a myth in the
Oxyrhynchus Papyri the
dog has escaped at a fountain near Mykenai, which since then is called
Eleutheron Hydor, "Water of Freedom". Or near Argos where the Kynadra
spring is named after him (
kynos = Hund).
At the end the rationalist Palaiphatos has the word again, who has an entirely different view:
Near the city of Trikarenos Geryon has
his herds of cattle and two dogs, Orthos and
Kerberos, called the Trikarenian dogs. This later was misunderstood as tree-headed. When
Herakles led away the cattle of Geryon he killed Orthos. But
Kerberos was following the herd. This
dog Molottos, a man from Mykenai, demanded from Erystheus. When Erystheus refused he persuaded one of the herdsmen to bring the
dog to a cave near the Spartan Tainaron. Erystheus thereupon commanded
Herakles to bring back the
dog. After a long quest over the whole
Peloponnesos Herakles found the cave, climbed down and brought back the
dog. But the people said "
Herakles has climbed down to the Hades and brought back the
dog."
Background:While fulfilling
his works
Herakles has obtained threetimes immortality: Of course the successful return from Hades is the overcoming of death. But the initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries too has promised an happy afterlife; the same was said by the oracle of
Delphi for the completion of
his labours. The same motiv with the same
success we find by drinking from Hera's breast and the quest for the
apple of the Hesperids. And we remember of Herakles' Ascension to heaven on the pyre.
The descent into hell as overcoming the death we know in Christianity as Harrowing of Hell (Gospel of
Thomas). In Middle Ages
Herakles was seen as prefiguration of
Christ himself, a promise, which then was fulfilled by
Christ. Overcoming
Kerberos correspondends to overcoming Satan, and like
Christ Herakles has two natures: a human and a devine. He appears in the early
Christian paintings in the Catacombs as hero, who by
his labours and hardship has won the heaven. He is depicted wearing a
nimbus. This too a sign of the continuation of
antiquity! But not only
Herakles and
Christ have overcome the death, but a victorious resurrection we know too from
Dionysos, Mithras and
Osiris.
History of Art:In
antiquity we have a vast number of
Herakles representations on bowls and vases, and especially on sarcophagi as expression of
hope for immortality. The first depiction of the 12 labours of
Herakles we find on the metopes of the Temple of
Zeus in Olympia, completed 456 BC.
In Renaissance
his labours are shown e.g. by G. Vasari on the ceiling of the
Hercules Room
in the Palazzo Vecchio in Firence. In the Palazzo Farnese in Rom we find a grisaille of Annibale Caracci with
Kerberos. Ruben's "
Herakles and
Kerberos" hangs in the Prado in Madrid. Dante's Commedia Divina was illustrated by Gustav Dore, 1823-1883. There is a picture showing Vergil in front of
Kerberos. The drawings of Dore are connected so closely to the Commedia Divina, that today, after 150 years, they define our view.
Literature: (1)
Homer, Odyssee
(2) Hesiod, Theogony
(3) Apollonius von
Rhodos, Argonautika
(4) Strabo, Geographika
(5) Vergil, Aeneis
(6) Ovid, Metamorphoses
(7) Plinius,
Historia naturalis
(8) Palaiphatos, Unglaubliche Geschichten
(9) Dante, Comedia Divina
Secondary Literature:(1) W. H. Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie, 1894
(online too)
(2) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon, 1770 (online too)
(3) Der Kleine
Pauly(4)
Robert von Ranke-Graves, Griechische Mythologie, 1960
(5) Karl Kerenyi, Die Mythologie der Griechen, 1966
(6) Aghion/Barbillon/Lissarrague, Lexikon der antiken Götter und Heroen in der Kunst, 2000
(7)
Maurice Bloomfield, The
History of an Idea, Chicago 1905 (auch online)
Online Sources:(1)
www.kimmerier.de/(2)
www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Cerberus.html (3)
www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/cerberus2.html (4)
www.theoi.com(5)
www.hellenica.de/Griechenland/PaulyRE/Acherusia2.html(6)
www.wikivoyage.org/de/Ere%C4%9Fli(7)
www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-46162751.htmlI have added:
(1) the pic of a black-figured
hydria from Caere/Etruria, c. 525 BD, ascribed to the
Eagle Painter, today in the Louvre/Paris. It shows
Herakles with
Kerberos, who already has
snakes, in front of Erystheus, who is hidden in
his pithos.
(2) the pic of a black-figured Attic
Hydria, c 530-520 BC, ascribed to the Karithaios Painter,
today in the
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA.
This picture is from Baumeister's "Denkmäler
des klassischen Alterthums":
Herakles with
raised club leads
Kerberos out of the Hades with a chain, drawn through the jaw of one of
the heads. He is about to lead
Kerberos through the gateway indicated by an Ionic pillar.
On
his right
Persephone is standing who has come out of her palace and seems to refuse
him the abduction (sometimes interpreted as greeting).
Herakles, turned right, seems to
threaten the goddess, whereas
Hermes at
his left hold
his protecting or restraining
arm over him.
Athena with averted
face is ready to drive away with her protege. She stands
before 4 horses tied to her
chariot. The
eagle on her
shield promises a successful
outcome of the undertaking.
(3) the pic from Gustave Dore's illustration of the Commedia Divina.
Best regards