10 Facts about Cerberus

Saturday, November 14th 2015. | Mythology


Facts about Cerberus tell you about the monstrous multi-headed dogs. Cerberus is very famous in Greek mythology. The dead cannot leave the underworld for Cerberus guards the gates. This animal is known as the hound of Hades since he is the ruler of the underworld. If you are interested to know the description of the dog, parents and roles, check the following post below:

Facts about Cerberus 1: the description of Cerberus

Cerberus is depicted with a serpent for a tail. It also has three heads. The different parts of the Cerberus’ body protrude snakes. The number of the head is varied based on some resources. But the common number of its head is three.

Facts about Cerberus 2: parents

Based on the Greek mythology, Echidna and Typhon were the parents of Cerberus. Both were monsters.

Cerberus Image

Cerberus Image

Facts about Cerberus 3: the family of Cerberus

Typhon was the father of Typhon. He was described with multi headed snake. Cerberus had three other multi-headed brothers. Those were chimera who owned three heads of a snake, a lion and a goat, Orthrus who had two heads of dogs and multi headed snake Lernaean Hydra.

Facts about Cerberus 4: Hesiod’s Theogony

If you check out the description of Cerberus in Hesiod’s Theogony, it was depicted with 50 heads. On the other hand, it was described with 100 heads by Pindar. But there are many writers who depict Cerberus with three heads.

Cerberus Pic

Cerberus Pic

Facts about Cerberus 5: Horace

Horace had different description about the head of Cerberus. It was depicted with one hundred snakes and a single dog head.

Facts about Cerberus 6: the description of Cerberus in art

If you check the description of Cerberus in art, it is often described with two visible heads. It is very uncommon to see it in three heads. Sometimes, it was depicted with a single dog head.

Facts about Cerberus

Facts about Cerberus

Facts about Cerberus 7: the first appearance of three headed dogs

In the mid 6th century, people spotted the first appearance of Cerberus with three headed dogs. Find centaur facts here.

Facts about Cerberus 8: Horace and its Cerberus depiction

Horace depicted Cerberus with many headed snakes because his father was the snake headed Typhon and his mother was the half snake Echidna.

Cerberus

Cerberus

Facts about Cerberus 9: the body of Cerberus

The body of Cerberus was described with snakes protruding from the body of Cerberus in the lost Argos cup. It was depicted with a snake for a tail in the Laconian cup made in mid 6th century BC.

Facts about Cerberus 10: the characteristics

Cerberus was described differently by several writers. Seneca stated that it had acute hearing, while Euphorion stated that the eyes of Cerberus flashed fire. Get facts about Anubis here.

Cerberus Pictures

Cerberus Pictures

Do you have any opinion on facts about Cerberus?


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