The Twelfth Labour of Hercules

The Twelfth Labour of Hercules is a story where Cerberus appears and

is the main story where Cerberus appears and it is also a story where

the hero, Hercules overcomes the ferocious guard dog of hell.

Cerberus plays an important role, protecting the gateway to the

underworld. His role is important to prevent anyone from leaving the

underworld. The living can enter, but they are not allowed to leave so it

is a brave (or not very bright) hero who enters Hade’s realm and expects

to be able to simply stroll back out without being eaten by Cerberus! One

of the heroes who took on this task was the mighty Hercules.

Hercules was just one of three people who managed to get past

Cerberus, which was an amazing feat as Cerberus was extremely good

at role of guarding the entrance to the Underworld, walking the rivers

along the border to ensure that no one escaped once they were inside

Hade’s domain.

In case you are curious, and curiosity is never a bad thing unless you

are curious as to what would happen if you shoved your arm into a nest

of angry wasps, the other two people who subdued Cerberus were

Orpheus with his music and Sybil of Cumae who drugged Cerberus with

a honey-cake.

Hercules was given the task of bringing Cerberus away from the

Underworld by Eurystheus, who was the King of Tiryns as one of the

Labours Hercules had to undertake.

This was the Twelfth and last Labour Hercules had to undertake, and it

was given to Hercules because Eurystheus thought it would be an

impossible task. The king had no real desire to see Cerberus.

Stories regarding Hercules’ journey differ as is the norm in these great

stories. It is believed that Hercules was aided in his mission because he

was an initiate in the Eleusinian Mysteries which he did to prepare for his

descent into the Underworld.

It is also told that Hercules was aided by both Hermes and Athena. In

Homer’s Odyssey, he wrote that Hercules was guided by Hermes and

Athena and the pair are often shown in depictions of Hercules’ Twelve

Labour.

Hercules was not one to shy away from an extra challenge and whilst

travelling through the Underworld, he came across two other heroes,

Theseus and Pirithous, who had been captured whilst attempting to

abduct Hades’s wife Persephone. Hercules not only completed his own

task of capturing Cerberus, but he also managed to rescue the two

trapped heroes.

In the writings of Apollodorus, Thesus and Pirithous had been tied to the

“Chair of Forgetfulness, to which they grew and were held fast by coils of

serpents”. When they saw Hercules, sensing their chance of rescue

“they stretched out their hands as if they should be raised from the dead

by his might.”

In some stories, Hercules rescues both of the men but in others he was

only able to free Thesus from his bindings.

When it comes to the capture of Cerberus, as in every story, there are

differing accounts.

Apollodorus writes that Hercules asked Hades for Cerberus and Hades

had stated that he could take the hound only if he “mastered him without

the use of the weapons which he carried.” Hercules abandoned his

weapons and used his strength to subdue Cerberus’s head until he

submitted to him.

There are also versions where Hercules fights Hades for possession of

Cerberus. In Homer’s Iliad he states that Hades was wounded by one of

Hercules’s arrows. Hercules used his lion skin instead of his shield and

used stone to make heads for his arrows which met with the rule of no

iron weapons. In some art works, Hercules is seen as attacking

Cerberus with a wooden club.

Once Cerberus was subdued, Hercules dragged him from the gates of

the Underworld. In the writings of Diodorus, he says that when Hercules

arrived in the Underworld, he was welcomed by Persephone “like a

brother” and it was Persephone who put Cerberus into chains and

handed him over to Hercules. Ovid writes that Hercules used chains of

adamant to subdue Cerberus before dragging the hound from the gates

of the Underworld.

There are as many suggestions as to where Hercules exited the

Underworld as there are versions of how he subdued Cerberus in the

first place. The following are where different writers suggest Hercules

exited from the Underworld.

 Strabo who lived from around 63/64 BC documented that

“according to the myth writers” Hercules dragged Cerberus out at

Tainaron, which is also where Euripides instructed Hercules to

enter into the Underworld.

 Seneca states that Hercules both entered and left at Tainaron.

 Apollodorus also had Hercules enter at Tainaron, but he had him

leave at Troezen.

 Pausanias who was a geographer, writes that at Troezen that is a

temple with “altars to the gods said to rule under the earth”, and

this is where Cerberus was dragged out from the Underworld. It is

at this temple that Semele, mother of the god Dionysus with Zeus

was brought out of the Underworld by her son.

Wherever Hercules dragged Cerberus from the Underworld, it was an

amazing feat and thought to be impossible. Cerberus, not used to being

about in the daylight, ‘vomited bile’ and from this the aconite plant was

said to come from resulting in a deadly poisonous plant.

Once Hercules had dragged Cerberus from this gate duty, he paraded

him through Greece before showing Eurystheus as ordered. After

proving he had completed his task, Cerberus was returned to the

Underworld so he could continue his duties guarding the gateway for

Hades.