Why Cerberus

I am not too sure why I chose Cerberus. One thing is that when I think of Cerberus I quickly think monster. Another is that it is interesting to think about he concept of Cerberus. He is a dog of varying physical descriptions, some of them are terrifying, some of them are parodies. In his Original myths he is ferocious, starving, and is chained up at the gate to the underworld. He is a monster that has been restrained and has been put to a job that he can do well and it is a job that isn’t actually inherently bad or evil. I am sure that if he was given the chance he would go and eat everyone he could and cause plenty of devastation, but he doesn’t because he is retrained by Hades

History/Culture

Cerberus is a being from Greek mythology. This means that he was a product of Greek culture. According to Brush up Your Mythology, the Egyptians used dogs as guards for their graves and this may have been inspired by the myths of the guardian Cerberus. Also, his history is one of change. He has gone from a giant 50 headed dog with a serpent tale and a mane of snakes in Hesiod’s poem to a giant dog with just three heads in Harry Potter. He has gone from son of Typhon and Enchinda, and hound of Hades to some big monster that hagred found and tamed that falls asleep at the first sound of music.

The truth is that if you were in ancient Greece, you probably would not have heard the name Cerberus before, although you may have heard of the three headed dog guarding the gate to the underworld. This is because the name Cerberus is actually Latin. But, of course the name he has in Greek is quite similar; it is Kerberos. Just like how Hercules is actually Latin for Heracles. The name Kerberos is thought to mean “demon of the pit.” which would be fitting since he is feared as if he is a demon and he happens to dwell in underworld which could be considered a pit.