# Edmund Dulac's picture-book for the French Red Cross/Cerberus, the Black Dog of Hades

CERBERUS. THE BLACK DOG OF HADES.
p. 99
CERBERUS
Cerberus, the triple-headed, snake-haired, black dog guarding the gates of Hades, was a mythological monster of fierce and terrible aspect. When the shades of the departed from the upper world were ferried across the River Styx by old Charon the boatman, Cerberus lay quiet and let them pass unchallenged. He knew them: they were shades brought in regular order, by Charon, and, as such, they were allowed to enter Hades. But, if they wished to retrace their steps, and gain the upper world again—this was a labour, this was a task not so easily accomplished, for Cerberus would bar their way; his mane would rise and his jaws would gape, and there was no passing this terrible gatekeeper.
Yet, in the stories of antiquity, there are at least three instances of mortals, or gods in the form of mortals, passing the grim tiler on entering Hades, and repassing him on coming out again. These three were Persephone, Orpheus, and Æneas.
Persephone was the daughter of Ceres (Demeter), and was carried off by Pluto, the ruler of Hades. It was into Hades he carried her and made her his queen. Cerberus knew his master, so, although Pluto bore in his arms a woman in mortal form, they passed in unchallenged by the janitor. But, when Persephone's mother, Ceres, having searched with lighted torches through all the world for her daughter, came at last to the gates of Hades, she evaded Cerberus in some way that is not clearly recorded. And, when she found her daughter, and discovered that Zeus and Pluto had conspired over her abduction, she was angry and said that she would deprive the earth of cereals (a word derived from her name Ceres, the goddess of corn) until a satisfactory agreement was arrived at. Zeus and ​Pluto again conspired, and it was arranged that Persephone should spend four months of the year in Hades and the other eight with the gods. This meant that she had to pass and repass Cerberus constantly.
The second case is that of Orpheus. His wife Eurydice died of a serpent's bite, and her shade was ferried across the Styx by Charon and passed into Hades without challenge from Cerberus. But Orpheus bewailed her loss, saying, as in Glück's wonderful opera, 'Eurydice':
'She is gone, and gone for ever';
and finally resolved to journey to Hades and bring his wife back. With the lute to which he had sung the praises of the gods, and so passed the Sirens in safety,—whereas Ulysses had to order his sailors to bind him to the mast,—he charmed the fierce dog into a deep slumber, and so entered Hades.
He found Eurydice, and Pluto agreed to let her go, provided that Orpheus did not look back before he passed Cerberus. But, when he came to the monster, Eurydice following, he looked back to reassure her, when lo, she vanished again to her place among the shades. Orpheus, in despair, sang again to his lute:
'She is gone, and gone for ever!'
and so, having charmed Cerberus to sleep, passed to the middle world where, like Bacchus, he was torn to pieces by his fellow-mortals.
The third case is that of Æneas, the Trojan prince, who made the journey to Hades to find his lost love. Dido, and to consult his father, Anchises. He repaired to a sibyl dwelling among the mountains, and she conducted him to the gates of the lower regions.
There, over a crag that marked his den, rose the monstrous three-headed dog, his crested snakes bristling, his eyes shooting fire, his jaws greedy for prey. But the sibyl had provided herself with a cake steeped in honey and tinctured with an opiate drug derived from India and now called Cerbera. This she flung to the monster, who ​greedily devoured it and immediately sank into a deep sleep, leaving the way to Hades unguarded. And, ever since, the phrase 'a sop to Cerberus ' has been used to signify a sweet morsel flung to pave the way to some concession.
This dog of Hades was not immortal. It remained for Hercules—the type of the perfect man—to vanquish him in the last of his twelve labours. And by this act Hercules was said to have abolished the tyranny of evil in the realm of Pluto, which extended from the utmost star of the galaxy to the lowest depth of Hades.