EKHIDNA (Bacchylides Frag 5, Ovid Metamorphoses 7.412)ĬE′RBERUS (Kerberos), 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. TYPHOEUS & EKHIDNA (Hesiod Theogony 310, Quintus Smyrnaeus 6.260, Hyginus Pref & Fab 30) Kerberos' name perhaps means 'Death-Daemon of the Dark' from the ancient Greek words kêr and erebos. Herakles (Heracles) was sent to fetch Kerberos as one of his twelve labours, a task which he accomplished with the aid of the goddess Persephone. According to some he had fifty heads although this count may have included the serpents of his mane. Kerberos was depicted as a three-headed dog with a serpent's tail, mane of snakes, and a lion's claws. KERBEROS (Cerberus) was the gigantic, three-headed hound of Haides which guarded the gates of the underworld and prevented the escape of the shades of the dead. Death-Darkness? Heracles and Cerberus the hound of Hades, Caeretan black-figure hydria C6th B.C., Musée du Louvre
