Hermes, the guide of the dead, brings to Pluto's kingdom their psyches,
"that gibber like bats, as they fare down the dank ways, past the
streams of Okeanos, past the gates of the sun and the land of dreams, to
the meadow of asphodel in the dark realm of Hades, where dwell the
souls, the phantoms of men outworn." So begins the twenty-fourth book of
the _Odyssey_. Later poets have Charon, a grim boatsman, receive the
dead at the River of Woe; he ferries them across, provided the passage
money has been placed in their mouths, and their bodies have been duly
buried in the world above. Otherwise they are left to gibber on the
hither bank. Pluto's house, wide-gated, thronged with guests, has a
janitor Kerberos, sometimes friendly, sometimes snarling when new
guests arrive, but always hostile to those who would depart. Honey cakes
are provided for them that are about to go to Hades--the sop to
Cerberus. This dog, nameless and undescribed, Homer mentions simply as
the dog of Hades, whom Herakles, as the last and chief test of his
strength, snatched from the horrible house of Hades.[1] First Hesiod and
next Stesichorus discover his name to be Kerberos. The latter seems to
have composed a poem on the dog. Hesiod[2] mentions not only the name
but also the genealogy of Kerberos. Of Typhaon and Echidna he was born,
the irresistible and ineffable flesh-devourer, the voracious,
brazen-voiced, fifty-headed dog of hell.
Plato in the _Republic_ refers to the composite nature of Kerberos.[3]
Not until Apollodorus (2. 5. 12. 1. ff.), in the second century B. C.,
comes the familiar description: Kerberos now has three dog heads, a
dragon tail, and his back is covered with the heads of serpents. But
his plural heads must have been familiarly assumed by the Greeks; this
will appear from the evidence of their sculptures and vase-paintings.