Cerberus, the Dog of Hades: The History of an Idea

Norton has reproduced¹ an image of an amphora A tall ancient Greek jar with two handles and a narrow neck in the Louvre museum which features a picture of a two-headed original: "dicephalous" Cerberus original Greek: "Kerberos". Upon the forehead of each of the two heads rises a serpent. Herakles—wearing a tunic and a lion’s skin and armed with a bow, quiver, and sword—stoops toward the dog. He holds a chain in his left hand while stretching out his right hand with a petting gesture. Between the two is a tree, against which the club of Herakles leans. Behind him stands the goddess Athena.

CERBERUS IN ROMAN AND MODERN LITERATURE

However, neither Greek literature nor Greek art seems to definitively establish either the shape or nature of Cerberus; it was left to the Roman poets to say the last word about him. They finally settled the number of his heads, or the number of his bodies fused into one. He is described as three-headed original Latin: triceps, triple or threefold original Latin: triplex or tergeminus, and three-formed original Latin: triformis—consisting of three

¹ American Journal of Archaeology, volume 11, page 14 (figure 12, page 15).