They unknowingly sat in chairs of forgetfulness and were permanently ensnared. One tradition tells of snakes coiling around their legs then turning into stone another tells that Hades feigned hospitality and prepared a feast inviting them to sit. The two companions had been imprisoned by Hades for attempting to kidnap Persephone. Whilst in the underworld, Heracles met Theseus and Pirithous. He passed Charon with Hestia's assistance and his own heavy and fierce frowning.

He found the entrance to the underworld at Tanaerum, and Athena and Hermes helped him to traverse the entrance in each direction. Cerberus was always employed as Hades' loyal watchdog, and guarded the gates that granted access and exit to the underworld.Ĭapturing Cerberus, without using weapons, was the final labour assigned to Heracles (Hercules) by King Eurystheus, in recompense for the killing of his own children by Megara after he was driven insane by Hera, and therefore was the most dangerous and difficult.Īfter having been given the task, Heracles went to Eleusis to be initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries so he could learn how to enter and exit the underworld alive, and in passing absolve himself for killing centaurs. Each of Cerberus' heads is said to have an appetite only for live meat and thus allow only the spirits of the dead to freely enter the underworld, but allow none to leave. In most works, the three heads each respectively see and represent the past, the present, and the future, while other sources suggest the heads represent birth, youth, and old age. The common depiction of Cerberus in Greek mythology and art is as having three heads. Its siblings are the Lernaean Hydra, a serpant woman Orthus, a two-headed hellhound and the Chimaera, a three-headed monster. Some depictions of Cerberus also describe it is having a serpent's tail.Ĭerberus was the offspring of Echidna, a hybrid half-woman and half-serpent, and Typhon, a gigantic monster even the Greek gods feared. A massively built hound with three heads, Cerberus has been portrayed as having various canine appearances in differing accounts, although the most common seem to be Alsation- or Rottweiler-type attributes.

Monster-wiki sumo monster legends