{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_19119/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_19119","id":"gutenberg_19119","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19119","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Cerberus (Greek mythology)"],"text":"Produced by Joseph R. Hauser, David Edwards and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nbook was produced from scanned images of public domain\nmaterial from the Google Print project)\n\n\n\n\n\n+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n|TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:                                                   |\n|                                                                       |\n|The original text uses macrons (a letter with a bar over it) in some of|\n|the names. These have been replaced with [=x] (where x is the original |\n|letter).                                                               |\n|                                                                       |\n|There is Greek in this text which has been transliterated into Arabic  |\n|letters.                                                               |\n+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nExplanation of Frontispiece\n\nThe picture is reproduced from Baumeister's _Denkmaeler des klassichen\nAlterthums_, volume I., figure 730 (text on p. 663). It is on a vase and\ndescribes one of the twelve heroic deeds of Herakles. The latter,\nholding aloft his club, drags two-headed Cerberus out of Hades by a\nchain drawn through the jaw of one of his heads. He is just about to\npass Cerberus through a portal indicated by an Ionic pillar. To the\nright Persephone, stepping out of her palace, seems to forbid the rape.\nHerakles in his turn seems to threaten the goddess, while Hermes, to the\nleft, holds a protecting or restraining arm over him. Athene, with\naverted face, ready to depart with her protege, stands in front of four\nhorses hitched to her chariot. Upon her shield the eagle augurs the\nsuccess of the entire undertaking.\n\n\n\n\n  CERBERUS,\n\n  THE DOG OF HADES\n\n  _The History of an Idea_\n\n\n  BY\n\n  MAURICE BLOOMFIELD\n  Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology\n  Johns Hopkins University\n\n\n  CHICAGO\n  The Open Court Publishing Company\n\n  LONDON\n  KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUeBNER & CO., LTD\n  1905\n\n\n\n\n  COPYRIGHT 1905\n  BY\n  THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO.\n  CHICAGO\n\n\n\n\n  To the Memory\n       of\n  F. Max Mueller\n\n\n\n\nCERBERUS, THE DOG OF HADES\n\n\nHermes, the guide of the dead, brings to Pluto's kingdom their psyches,\n\"that gibber like bats, as they fare down the dank ways, past the\nstreams of Okeanos, past the gates of the sun and the land of dreams, to\nthe meadow of asphodel in the dark realm of Hades, where dwell the\nsouls, the phantoms of men outworn.\" So begins the twenty-fourth book of\nthe _Odyssey_. Later poets have Charon, a grim boatsman, receive the\ndead at the River of Woe; he ferries them across, provided the passage\nmoney has been placed in their mouths, and their bodies have been duly\nburied in the world above. Otherwise they are left to gibber on the\nhither bank. Pluto's house, wide-gated, thronged with guests, has a\njanitor Kerberos, sometimes friendly, sometimes snarling when new\nguests arrive, but always hostile to those who would depart. Honey cakes\nare provided for them that are about to go to Hades--the sop to\nCerberus. This dog, nameless and undescribed, Homer mentions simply as\nthe dog of Hades, whom Herakles, as the last and chief test of his\nstrength, snatched from the horrible house of Hades.[1] First Hesiod and\nnext Stesichorus discover his name to be Kerberos. The latter seems to\nhave composed a poem on the dog. Hesiod[2] mentions not only the name\nbut also the genealogy of Kerberos. Of Typhaon and Echidna he was born,\nthe irresistible and ineffable flesh-devourer, the voracious,\nbrazen-voiced, fifty-headed dog of hell.\n\nPlato in the _Republic_ refers to the composite nature of Kerberos.[3]\nNot until Apollodorus (2. 5. 12. 1. ff.), in the second century B. C.,\ncomes the familiar description: Kerberos now has three dog heads, a\ndragon tail, and his back is covered with the heads of serpents. But\nhis plural heads must have been familiarly assumed by the Greeks; this\nwill appear from the evidence of their sculptures and vase-paintings.\n\n\nCERBERUS IN CLASSIC ART.\n\nClassic art has taken up Cerberus very generously; his treatment,\nhowever, is far from being as definite as that of the Greek and Roman\npoets. Statues, sarcophagi, and vase paintings whose theme is Hades, or\nscenes laid in Hades, represent him as a ferocious Greek collie, often\nencircled with serpents, and with a serpent for a tail, but there is no\ncertainty as to the number of his heads. Often he is three-headed in art\nas in literature, as may be seen conveniently in the reproductions in\nBaumeister's _Denkmaeler des Klassischen Altertums_. Very familiar is the\nstatue in the villa Borghese of Pluto enthroned, three-headed Cerberus\nby his side.[4] A Greek scarabaeus shows a pair of lovers, or a married\ncouple, who have died at the same time, crossing in Charon's ferry. As\nthey are approaching the other bank of the Styx, where a three-headed\nCerberus is awaiting them, the girl seems afright and is upheld by her\nmale companion.[5] On the other hand, a bronze in Naples shows the\nsmiling boy Herakles engaged in strangling two serpents, one with each\nhand. The figure rests on a cylindrical base upon which are depicted\neight of the wonderful deeds which Herakles performs later on. By a rope\nhe leads a _two-headed_ Cerberus from Hades.[6]\n\nThis last of the wonderful deeds of Herakles is a favorite theme of vase\npictures. Herakles is regularly accompanied by Hermes and Athena; the\ndog, whose marvelous shape Homer fails to reveal, is generally\ntwo-headed. Such a vase may be seen in Gerhard, _Auserlesene\nVasenbilder_, ii. 131.[7] Or still more conveniently, Professor Norton\nhas reproduced[8] an amphora in the Louvre with a picture of the\ndicephalous Kerberos. Upon the forehead of each of the two heads rises a\nserpent. Herakles in tunic and lion's skin, armed with bow, quiver, and\nsword, stoops towards the dog. He holds a chain in his left hand, while\nhe stretches out his right with a petting gesture. Between the two is a\ntree, against which leans the club of Herakles. Behind him stands\nAthena.\n\n\nCERBERUS IN ROMAN AND MODERN LITERATURE.\n\nNeither Greek literature, nor Greek art, however, really seems to fix\neither the shape or nature of Kerberos; it was left to the Roman poets\nto say the last word about him. They finally settle the number of his\nheads, or the number of his bodies fused in one. He is _triceps_\n\"three-headed,\" _triplex_ or _tergeminus_ \"threefold,\" _triformis_ \"of\nthree bodies,\" or simply Tricerberus. Tibullus says explicitly that he\nhas both three heads and three tongues: _cui tres sint linguae\ntergeminumque caput_. Virgil, in the _AEneid_, vi. 417, has huge Cerberus\nbarking with triple jaws; his neck bristles with serpents. Ovid in his\n_Metamorphoses_, x. 21, makes Orpheus, looking for dear Eurydice in\nTartarus, declare that he did not go down in order that he might chain\nthe three necks, shaggy with serpents, of the monster begotten of\nMedusa. His business also is settled for all time; he is the terrible,\nfearless, and watchful janitor, or guardian (_janitor_ or _custos_) of\nOrcus, the Styx, Lethe, or the black Kingdom.[9] And so he remains for\nmodern poets, as when Dante, reproducing Virgil, describes him:[10]\n\n  \"When Cerberus, that great worm, had seen us\n  His mouth he opened and his fangs were shown,\n  And then my leader with his folded palms\n  Took of the earth, and filling full his hand,\n  Into those hungry gullets flung it down.\"\n\nOr Shakespeare, _Love's Labor Lost_, v. ii: \"Great Hercules is presented\nby this imp whose club killed Cerberus, the three-headed _canis_.\"\n\n\nCLASSICAL EXPLANATIONS OF CERBERUS.\n\nSuch classical explanations of Cerberus' shape as I have seen are feeble\nand foolishly reasonable. Heraclitus, [Greek: Peri apiston] 331, states\nthat Kerberos had two pups. They always attended their father, and\ntherefore he appeared to be three-headed. The mythographer\nPalaephatos(39) states that Kerberos was considered three-headed from\nhis name [Greek: Trikarenos] which he obtained from the city Trikarenos\nin Phliasia. And a late Roman rationalistic mythographer by the name of\nFulgentius[11] tells us that Petronius defined Cerberus as the lawyer of\nHades, apparently because of his three jaws, or the cumulative glibness\nof three tongues. Fulgentius himself has a _fabula_ in which he says\nthat Cerberus means _Creaboros_, that is, \"flesh-eating,\" and that the\nthree heads of Cerberus are respectively, infancy, youth, and old age,\nthrough which death has entered the circle of the earth--_per quas\nintroivit mors in orbem terrarum_.[12]\n\n\nA MODERN VIEW.\n\n  \"_Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch' entrate_\"\n\nCan we bid this \"_schwankende Gestalt_,\" this monstrous vision, floating\nabout upon the filmy photographs of murky Hades, stand still, emerge\ninto light, and assume clear and reasonable outlines?\n\n  \"Hence loathed melancholy of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born.\"\n\nAn American humorist, John Kendrick Bangs, who likes to place his skits\nin Hades, steps in \"where angels fear to tread,\" and launches with a\nlight heart the discussion as to whether Cerberus is one or more dogs.\nThe city of Cimmeria in Hades, having tried asphalt pavement, which was\nfound too sloppy for that climate, and Nicholson wood pavement, which\nkept taking fire, decides on Belgian blocks. In order to meet the new\nexpense a dog-tax is imposed. Since Cerberus belongs to Hades as a\nwhole, the state must pay his tax, and is willing enough to do so--on\nCerberus as one dog. The city, however, endeavors to collect on three\ndogs--one license for each head. Two infernal coppers, sent to impound\nCerberus, fare not well, one of them being badly chewed up by Cerberus,\nthe other nabbed bodily and thrown into the Styx. In consequence of this\nthey obtain damages from the city. The city then decides to bring suit\nagainst the state. The bench consists of Apollyon himself and Judge\nBlackstone; Coke appears for the city, Catiline for the state. The first\ndog-catcher, called to testify, and asked whether he is familiar with\ndogs, replies in the affirmative, adding that he had never got quite so\nintimate with one as he got with him.\n\n\"With whom?\" asks Coke.\n\n\"Cerberus,\" replies the witness.\n\n\"Do you consider him to be one dog, two dogs, or three dogs?\"\n\nCatiline objects to this question as a leading one, but Coke manages to\nget it in under another form: \"How many dogs did you see when you saw\nCerberus?\"\n\n\"Three, anyhow,\" replies the witness with feeling, \"though afterwards I\nthought there was a whole bench-show atop of me.\"\n\nOn cross-examination Catiline asks him blandly: \"My poor friend, if you\nconsidered Cerberus to be three dogs anyhow, why did you in your\nexamination a moment since refer to the avalanche of caninity, of which\nyou so affectingly speak, as him?\"\n\n\"He is a him,\" sturdily says the witness. After this Coke, discomfited,\ndecides to call his second witness: \"What is your business?\" asks Coke,\nafter the usual preliminaries.\n\n\"I'm out of business. Livin' on my damages.\"\n\n\"What damages?\"\n\n\"Them I got from the city for injuries did me by that there--I should\nsay them there--dorgs, Cerberus.\"\n\nAnd so on. Catiline gains the day for the state by his superior logic;\nthe city of Cimmeria must content itself with taxes on a single dog. But\nthe logic of the facts, it will appear, are with the dog-catchers, Judge\nCoke, and the city of Cimmeria as against the state of Hades: Cerberus\nis more than one dog.\n\n\nFUTURE LIFE IN THE VEDA.\n\nIndia is the home of the Cerberus myth in its clearest and fullest\ndevelopment. In order to appreciate its nature we must bear in mind that\nthe early Hindu conceptions of a future life are auspicious, and quite\nthe reverse of sombre. The statements in the Veda about life after death\nexclude all notions of hell. The early visions are simple, poetic and\ncheerful. The bodies of the dead are burned and their ashes are\nconsigned to earth. But this is viewed merely as a symbolic act of\npreparation--cooking it is called forthright--for another life of joy.\nThe righteous forefathers of old who died before, they have found\nanother good place. Especially Yama, the first mortal, has gone to the\ngreat rivers on high; he has searched out, like a pioneer, the way for\nall his descendants: \"He went before and found a dwelling which no power\ncan debar us from. Our fathers of old have traveled the path; it leads\nevery earth-born mortal thither. There in the midst of the highest\nheaven beams unfading light and eternal waters flow; there every wish is\nfulfilled on the rich meadows of Yama.\" Day by day Yama sends forth two\ndogs, his messengers, to search out among men those who are to join the\nfathers that are having an excellent time in Yama's company.\n\n\nTHE TWO DOGS OF YAMA.\n\nThe tenth book of the _Rig-Veda_ contains in hymns 14-18 a collection of\nfuneral stanzas quite unrivaled for mythological and ethnological\ninterest in the literature of ancient peoples. In hymn 14 there are\nthree stanzas (10-12) that deal with the two dogs of Yama. This is the\nclassical passage, all depends upon its interpretation. They contain\ndetached statements which take up the idea from different points of\nview, that are not easily harmonized as long as the dogs are merely\nordinary canines; they resolve themselves fitly and neatly into a pair\nof natural objects, if we follow closely all the ideas which the Hindus\nassociated with them.\n\nIn the first place, it is clear that we are dealing with the conception\nof Cerberus. In stanza 10 the two dogs are conceived as ill-disposed\ncreatures, standing guard to keep the departed souls out of bliss. The\nsoul on its way to heaven is addressed as follows:\n\n\"Run past straightway the two four-eyed dogs, the spotted and (the\ndark), the brood of Saram[=a]; enter in among the propitious fathers who\nhold high feast with Yama.\"\n\nA somewhat later text, the book of house-rite of [=A]cval[=a]yana, has\nthe notion of the sop to Cerberus: \"To the two dogs born in the house\nof (Yama) Vivasvant's son, to the dark and the spotted, I have given a\ncake; do ye guard me ever on my road!\"\n\nThe twelfth stanza of the _Rig-Veda_ hymn strikes a somewhat different\nnote which suggests both good and evil in the character of the two dogs:\n\"The two brown, broad-nosed messengers of Yama, life-robbing, wander\namong men. May they restore to us to-day the auspicious breath of life,\nthat we may behold the sun.\" Evidently the part of the Cerberi here is\nnot in harmony with their function in stanza 10: instead of debarring\nmen from the abodes of bliss they pick out the dead that are ultimately\ndestined to boon companionship with Yama. The same idea is expressed\nsimply and clearly in prayers for long life in the _Atharva-Veda_: \"The\ntwo dogs of Yama, the dark and the spotted, that guard the road (to\nheaven), that have been dispatched, shall not (go after) thee! Come\nhither, do not long to be away! Do not tarry here with thy mind turned\nto a distance.\" (viii. 1. 9.) And again: \"Remain here, O man, with thy\nsoul entire! Do not follow the two messengers of Yama; come to the\nabodes of the living.\" (v. 30. 6.)\n\nThese prayers contain the natural, yet under the circumstances rather\nparadoxical, desire to live yet a little longer upon the earth in the\nlight of the sun. Fitfully the mortal Hindu regales himself with\nsaccharine promises of paradise; in his every-day mood he clings to life\nand shrinks with the uneasy sense that his paradise may not materialize,\neven if the hope is expressed glibly and fluently. The real craving is\nexpressed in numberless passages: \"May we live a hundred autumns,\nsurrounded by lusty sons.\" Homer's Hades has wiped out this\ninconsistency, only to substitute another. Odysseus, on returning from\nhis visit to Hades, exclaims baldly: \"Better a swineherd on the surface\nof the earth in the light of the sun than king of the shades in Hades.\"\nIt is almost adding insult to injury to have the road to such a Hades\nbarred by Cerberus. This latter paradox must be removed in order that\nthe myth shall become intelligible.\n\nThe eleventh of the _Rig-Veda_ stanzas presents the two dogs as guides\nof the soul [Greek: psychopompoi] to heaven: \"To thy two four-eyed,\nroad-guarding, man-beholding watch-dogs entrust him, O King Yama, and\nbestow on him prosperity and health.\"\n\n\nTHE TWO DOGS IN HEAVEN.\n\nWith the change of the abode of the dead from inferno to heaven the two\nCerberi are _eo ipso_ also evicted. That follows of itself, even if we\nhad not explicit testimony. A legend of the Br[=a]hmana-texts, the Hindu\nequivalent of the Talmud, tells repeatedly that there are two dogs _in\nheaven_, and that these two dogs are Yama's dogs. I shall present two\nversions of the story, a kind of [Greek: Gigantomachia] in order to\nestablish the equation between the terms \"two dogs of Yama,\" and \"two\nheavenly dogs.\"\n\n\"There were Asuras (demons) named K[=a]lak[=a]njas. They piled up a fire\naltar in order to obtain the world of heaven. Man by man they placed a\nbrick upon it. The god Indra, passing himself off for a Brahmin, put on\na brick for himself. They climbed up to heaven. Indra pulled out his\nbrick; they tumbled down. And they who tumbled down became spiders; two\nflew up, and became the two heavenly dogs.\" (Br[=a]hmana of the\n_T[=a]ittir[=i]yas_ 1. 1. 2.)\n\n\"The Asuras (demons) called K[=a]lak[=a]njas piled bricks for an altar,\nsaying: 'We will ascend to heaven.' Indra, passing himself off for a\nBrahmin, came to them; he put on a brick. They at first came near\ngetting to heaven; then Indra tore out his brick. The Asuras becoming\nquite feeble fell down; the two that were uppermost became the dogs of\nYama, those which were lower became spiders.\" (Br[=a]hmana of the\n_M[=a]itra_ 1. 6. 9.)\n\nThis theme is so well fixed in the minds of the time that it is\nelaborated in a charm to preserve from some kind of injury, addressed to\nthe mythic figures of the legend:\n\n\"Through the air he flies looking down upon all beings: with the majesty\nof the heavenly dog, with that oblation would we pay homage to thee.\n\n\"The three K[=a]lak[=a]njas, that are fixed upon the sky like gods, all\nthese I have called to help, to render this person free from harm.\n\n\"In the waters is thy origin, upon the heavens thy home, in the middle\nof the sea, and upon the earth, thy greatness; with the majesty of the\nheavenly dog, with that oblation would we pay homage to thee.\"\n(_Atharva-Veda_ vi., 80.)\n\nThe single heavenly dog that is described here is of no mean interest.\nThe passage proves the individual character of each of the two dogs of\nYama; they cannot be a vague pair of heavenly dogs, but must be based\neach upon some definite phenomenon in the heavens.\n\nYet another text, Hiranyakecin's book of house-rites, locates the dogs\nof Yama, describing them in unmistakable language, in heaven: \"The brood\nof Saram[=a], dark beneath and brown, run, looking down upon the sea.\"\n(ii. 7. 2.)\n\n\nTHE TWO DOGS OF YAMA EXPLAIN THEMSELVES.\n\nThere are not many things in heaven that can be represented as a pair,\ncoursing across the sky, looking down upon the sea, and having other\nrelated properties. My readers will make a shrewd guess, but I prefer to\nlet the texts themselves unfold the transparent mystery. The Veda of the\n_Katha_ school (xxxvii. 14) says: \"These two dogs of Yama, verily, are\nday and night,\" and the Br[=a]hmana of the _K[=a]ush[=i]takins_ (ii. 9)\nargues in Talmudic strain: \"At eve, when the sun has gone down, before\ndarkness has set in, one should sacrifice the _agnihotra_-sacrifice; in\nthe morning before sunrise, when darkness is dispelled, at that time,\none should sacrifice the _agnihotra_-sacrifice; at that time the gods\narrive. Therefore (the two dogs of Yama) Cy[=a]ma and Cabala (the dark\nand the spotted) tear to pieces the _agnihotra_ of him that sacrifices\notherwise. Cabala is the day; Cy[=a]ma is the night. He who sacrifices\nin the night, his _agnihotra_ Cy[=a]ma tears asunder; he who sacrifices\nin broad daylight, his _agnihotra_ Cabala tears asunder.\" Even more\ndrily the two dogs of Yama are correlated with the time-markers of\nheaven in a passage of the _T[=a]ittir[=i]ya-Veda_ (v. 7. 19); here\nsundry parts of the sacrificial horse are assigned to four cosmic\nphenomena in the following order: 1. Sun and moon. 2. Cy[=a]ma and\nCabala (the two dogs of Yama). 3. Dawn. 4. Evening twilight. So that the\ndogs of Yama are sandwiched in between sun and moon on the one side,\ndawn and evening twilight on the other. Obviously they are here, either\nas a special designation of day and night, or their physical\nequivalents, sun and moon. And now the _Catapatha-Br[=a]hmana_ says\nexplicitly: \"The moon verily is the divine dog; he looks down upon the\ncattle of the sacrificer.\" And again a passage in the Kashmir version of\nthe _Atharva-Veda_ says: \"The four-eyed dog (the moon) surveys by night\nthe sphere of the night.\"\n\n\nSUN AND MOON AS STATIONS ON THE WAY TO SALVATION.\n\nEven the theosophic Upanishads are compelled to make their way through\nthis tolerably crude mythology when they come to deal with the passage\nof the soul to release from existence and absorption in the universal\nBrahma. The human mind does not easily escape some kind of\neschatological topography. The Brahma itself may be devoid of all\nproperties, universal, pervasive, situated below as well as above, the\none true thing everywhere; still even the Upanishads finally fix upon a\nworld of Brahma, and that is above, not below, nor elsewhere; hence the\nsoul must pass the great cosmic potencies that seem to lie on the road\nfrom the sublunary regions to Brahma. The _K[=a]ush[=i]taki Upanishad_\n(1. 2. 3) arranges that all who leave this world first go to the moon,\nthe moon being the door of the world of light. The moon asks certain\ntheosophic questions; he alone who can answer them is considered\nsufficiently emancipated to advance to the world of Brahma. He who\ncannot--alas!--is born again as worm or as fly; as fish or as fowl; as\nlion or as boar; as bull or tiger or man; or as something else--any old\nthing, as we should say--in this place or in that place, according to\nthe quality of his works and the degree of his knowledge; that is, in\naccordance with the doctrine of _Karma_. Similarly the _M[=a]itri\nUpanishad_ (vi. 38) sketches salvation as follows: When a mortal no\nlonger approves of wrath, and ponders the true wish, he penetrates the\nveil that encloses the Brahma, breaks through the concentric circles of\nsun, moon, fire, etc., that occupy the ether. Only then does he behold\nthe supreme thing that is founded upon its own greatness only. And now\nthe _Ch[=a]ndogya Upanishad_ (viii. 13) has the same idea, mentioning\nboth moon and sun by their ancient names and in their capacity as dogs\nof Yama. The soul of the aspirant for fusion with Brahma resorts\npurgatorio-fashion alternately to Cy[=a]ma (the moon-dog) and Cabala\n(the sun-dog): \"From Cy[=a]ma (the moon) do I resort to Cabala (the\nsun); from Cabala to Cy[=a]ma. Shaking off sin, as a steed shakes off\n(the loose hair of) its mane, as the moon frees itself from the maw of\nR[=a]hu, the demon of eclipse, casting aside my body, my real self\ndelivered, do I enter into the uncreated world of Brahma.\"[13]\n\n\nANALYSIS OF THE MYTH.\n\nHindu mythology is famous for what I should like to hear called arrested\npersonification, or arrested anthropomorphism. More than elsewhere\nmythic figures seem here to cling to the dear memories of their birth\nand youth. This is due in part to the unequaled impressiveness of nature\nin India; in part to the dogged schematism of the Hindu mind, which\ndislikes to let go of any part of a thing from the beginning to end. On\nthe one hand, their constant, almost too rhythmic resort to nature in\ntheir poetry, and on the other, their Ved[=a]nta philosophy, or for\nthat matter their _Ars amatoria_ (_K[=a]mac[=a]stra_), the latter worked\nout with painstaking and undignified detail, illustrate the two points.\nHence we find here a situation which is familiar enough in the Veda, but\nscarcely and rarely exhibited in other mythological fields. Dogs, the\ntwo dogs of Yama are, but yet, too, sun and moon. It is quite surprising\nhow well the attributes of things so different keep on fitting them both\nwell enough. The color and brightness of the sun jumps with the fixed\nepithet, \"spotted,\" of the sun-dog Cabala; the moon-dog is black\n(Cy[=a]ma or Cy[=a]va). Sun and moon, as they move across the sky, are\nthe natural messengers of Yama, seated on high in the abode of the\nblessed, but Yama is after all death, and death hounds us all. Epithets\nlike \"man-beholding,\" or \"guarding the way,\" suit neutrally both\nconceptions. Above all, the earliest statements about Yama's dogs are\nrelieved of their inconsistencies. On the one hand the exhortation to\nthe dead to run past the two dogs in order to get to heaven, suits the\nidea of the heavenly dogs who are coursing across the sky. On the other\nhand, by an easy, though quite contrary, change of mental position, the\nsame two heavenly dogs are the guides who guard the way and look upon\nmen favorably; hence they are ordered by Yama to take charge of the dead\nand to furnish them such health and prosperity as the shades happen to\nhave use for. Again, by an equally simple shift of position, sun and\nmoon move among men as the messengers of death; by night and by day men\nperish, while these heavenly bodies alternate in their presence among\nmen.[14] Hence a text of the Veda can say in a similar mood: \"May Day\nand Night procure for us long life\" (House-book of [=A]cval[=a]yana, ii.\n4. 14). Conversely it is a commonplace of the Veda to say that day and\nnight destroy the lives of men. One text says that, \"day and night are\nthe encircling arms of death\" (Br[=a]hmana of the _K[=a]ush[=i]takin_,\nii. 9). Another, more explicitly, \"the year is death\"; by means of day\nand night does it destroy the life of mortals (_Catapatha-Br[=a]hmana_,\nx. 4. 3. 1). He who wishes to be released from the grim grip of day and\nnight sacrifices (symbolically) white and black rice, and pronounces the\nwords: \"Hail to Day; hail to Night; hail to Release\" (Br[=a]hmana of the\n_T[=a]ittiriya_, iii. 1. 6. 2). Who does not remember in this connection\nthe parable widely current in the Orient, in which two rats, one white,\nthe other black, gnaw alternately, but without let-up, the plant or tree\nof life?[15]\n\n\nTHE CERBERI IN THE NORSE MYTH.\n\nNorse mythology also contains certain animal pairs which seem to reflect\nthe two dualities, sun and moon, and day and night. There is here no\ncertainty as to detail; the Norse myth is advanced and congealed, if not\nspurious, as Professor Bugge and his school would have us believe. At\nthe feet of Odin lie his two wolves, Geri and Freki, \"Greedy\" and\n\"Voracious.\" They hurl themselves across the lands when peace is broken.\nWho shall say that they are to be entirely dissociated from Yama's two\ndogs of death? The virgin Mengloedh sleeps in her wonderful castle on the\nmountain called Hyfja, guarded by the two dogs Geri and Gifr, \"Greedy\"\nand \"Violent,\" who take turns in watching; only alternately may they\nsleep as they watch the Hyfja mountain. \"One sleeps by night, the other\nby day, and thus no one may enter\" (_Fioelsvinnsmal_, 16). It is not\nnecessary to suppose any direct connection between this fable and the\nVedic myth, but the root of the thought, no matter from how great a\ndistance it may have come, and how completely it may have been worked\nover by the Norse skald, is, after all, alternating sun and moon and\ntheir partners, day and night.\n\n\nCERBERUS IN THE PERSIAN AVESTA.\n\nNo reasonable student of mythology will demand of a myth so clearly\ndestined for fructification an everlasting virginal inviolateness. From\nthe start almost the two dogs of Yama are the brood of Saram[=a]. Why?\nSaram[=a] is the female messenger of the gods, at the root identical\nwith Hermes or Hermeias; she is therefore the predestined mother of\nthose other messengers, the two four-eyed dogs of Yama. And as the\nlatter are her litter the myth becomes retroactive; she herself is\nfancied later on as a four-eyed bitch (_Atharva-Veda_, iv. 20. 7).\nSimilarly the epithet \"broad-nosed\" stands not in need of mythic\ninterpretation, as soon as it has become a question of life-hunting\ndogs. Elusive and vague, I confess, is the persistent and important\nattribute \"four-eyed.\" This touch is both old and widespread. The\n_Avesta_, the bible of the ancient Iranians, has reduced the Cerberus\nmyth to stunted rudiments. In _Vendidad_, xiii. 8. 9, the killing of\ndogs is forbidden, because the soul of the slayer \"when passing to the\nother world, shall fly amid louder howling and fiercer pursuit than the\nsheep does when the wolf rushes upon it in the lofty forest. No soul\nwill come and meet his departing soul and help it through the howls and\npursuit in the other world; nor will the dogs that keep the Cinvad\nbridge (the bridge to paradise) help his departing soul through the\nhowls and pursuit in the other world.\" The _Avesta_ also conceives this\ndog to be four-eyed. When a man dies, as soon as the soul has parted\nfrom the body, the evil one, the corpse-devil (Druj Nasu), from the\nregions of hell, falls upon the dead. Whoever henceforth touches the\ncorpse becomes unclean, and makes unclean whomsoever he touches. The\ndevil is expelled from the dead by means of the \"look of the dog\": a\n\"four-eyed dog\" is brought near the body and is made to look at the\ndead; as soon as he has done so the devil flees back to hell\n(_Vendidad_, vii. 7; viii. 41). It is not easy to fetch from a\nmythological hell mythological monsters for casual purposes, especially\nas men are always engaged in dying upon the earth. Herakles is the only\none who, one single time, performed this notable \"stunt.\" So the\nParsis, being at a loss to find four-eyed dogs, interpret the name as\nmeaning a dog with two spots over the eyes. Curiously enough the Hindu\nscholiasts also regularly interpret the term \"four-eyed\" in exactly the\nsame way, \"with spots over the eyes.\" And the Vedic ritual in its turn\nhas occasion to realize the mythological four-eyed dog in practice. The\nhorse, at the horse-sacrifice, must take a bath for consecration to the\nholy end to which it is put. It must also be guarded against hostile\ninfluences. A low-caste man brings a four-eyed dog--here obviously the\nsymbol of the hostile powers--kills him with a club, and afterwards\nplaces him under the feet of the horse. It is scarcely necessary to\nstate that this is a dog with spots over his eyes, and that he is a\nsymbol of Cerberus.[16]\n\n\nTHE TERM \"FOUR-EYED.\"\n\nThe epithet \"four-eyed\" may possibly contain a tentative coagulation of\nthe two dogs in one. The capacity of the two dogs to see both by day\n(the sun) and by night (the moon) may have given the myth a slight start\ninto the direction of the two-headed Greek Cerberus. But there is the\nalternate possibility that four-eyed is but a figure of speech for\n\"sharp-sighted,\" especially as I have shown elsewhere that the parallel\nexpression \"to run with four feet\" is a Vedic figure of speech for\n\"swift of foot.\"[17] Certainly the god Agni, \"Fire,\" is once in the\n_Rig-Veda_ (i. 31. 13) called \"four-eyed,\" which can only mean\n\"sharp-sighted.\"\n\n\nTHE DUAL CABAL[=A]U.\n\nThe two dogs of Yama derive their proper names from their color\nepithets. The passages above make it clear that Cy[=a]ma (rarely\nCy[=a]va), \"the black,\" is the moon dog, and that Cabala, \"the spotted,\nor brindled,\" is the sun dog. In one early passage (_Rig-Veda_, x. 14.\n10) both dogs are named in the dual as Cabal[=a]u. But for a certain\nVedic usage one might think that \"the two spotted ones\" was their\nearliest designation. The usage referred to is the eliptic dual: a close\nor natural pair, each member of which suggests the other, may be\nexpressed through the dual of one of them, as when either\n_m[=a]tar[=a]u_ or _pitar[=a]u_, literally, \"the two mothers,\" and \"the\ntwo fathers,\" each mean \"the two parents.\"[18] From this we may conclude\nthat Cabal[=a]u means really Cabala and Cy[=a]ma, and not the two\nCabalas, that is, \"the two spotted ones.\"\n\n\nIS CABALAS = [Greek: Kerberos]?\n\nMore than a hundred years ago the Anglo-Indian Wilford, in the _Asiatick\nResearches_, iii., page 409, wrote: \"Yama, the regent of hell, has two\ndogs, according to the Pur[=a]nas; one of them named Cerbura, or varied;\nthe other Syama, or black.\" He then compares Cerbura with Kerberos, of\ncourse. The form Cerbura he obtained from his consulting Pandit, who\nexplained the name Cabala by the Sanskrit word _karbura_ \"variegated,\" a\nregular gloss of the Hindu scholiasts.\n\nAbout fifty years later a number of distinguished scholars of the past\ngeneration, Max Mueller, Albrecht Weber, and Theodor Benfey, compared the\nword Cabala with Greek [Greek: Kerberos] (rarely [Greek: Kerbelos]),\nbut, since then, this identification has been assailed in numerous\nquarters with some degree of heat, because it suffers from a slight\nphonetic difficulty. One need but remember the swift changes which the\nname of Apollo passes through in the mouths of the Greeks--[Greek:\nApollon], [Greek: Apellon], [Greek: Appellon], [Greek: Apeilon], [Greek:\nAploun][19]--to realize that it is useless to demand strict phonetic\nconservation of mythic proper names. The nominative Cabalas, translated\nsound for sound into Greek, yields [Greek: Keberos], [Greek: Kebelos];\n_vice versa_, [Greek: Kerberos?] translated sound for sound into Vedic\nSanskrit yields Calbalas, or perhaps, dialectically, Cabbalas. It is a\nsober view that considers it rather surprising that the two languages\nhave not manipulated their respective versions of the word so as to\nincrease still further the phonetic distance between them. Certainly the\nburden is now to prove that the identification is to be rejected, and, I\nthink, that the soundest linguistic science will refuse ultimately to\nconsider the phonetic discrepancy between the two words as a matter of\nserious import.\n\nBut whether the names Cabalas and Kerberos are identical or not, the\nmyth itself is the thing. The explanation which we have coaxed step by\nstep from the texts of the Veda imparts to the myth a definite\ncharacter: it is no longer a dark and uncertain touch in the troubled\nvisions of hell, but an uncommonly lucid treatment of an important\ncosmic phenomenon. Sun and moon course across the sky: beyond is the\nabode of light and the blessed. The coursers are at one moment regarded\nas barring the way to heaven; at another as outposts who may guide the\nsoul to heaven. In yet another mood, as they constantly, day by day,\nlook down upon the race of men, dying day by day, they are regarded as\npicking daily candidates for the final journey. In due time Yama and his\nheaven are degraded to a mere Pluto and hell; then the terrible\ncharacter of the two dogs is all that can be left to them. And the two\ndogs blend into a unit variously, either a four-eyed Parsi dog, or a\ntwo-headed--finally a plural-headed--Kerberos.\n\n\nOTHER DOGS OF HELL.\n\nThe peace of mind of one or the other reader is likely to be disturbed\nby the appearance of a hell-dog here and there among peoples outside of\nthe Indo-European (Aryan) family. So, e. g., I. G. Mueller, in his\n_Geschichte der Americanischen Urreligionen_, second edition, p. 88,\nmentions a dog who threatens to swallow the souls in their passage of\nthe river of hell. There was a custom among the Mordwines to put a club\ninto the coffin with the corpse, to enable him to drive away the\nwatch-dogs at the gate of the nether world.[20] The Mordwines, however,\nhave borrowed much of their mythology from the Iranians. The Hurons and\nIroquois told the early missionaries that after death the soul must\ncross a deep and swift river on a bridge formed by a single slender\ntree, where it had to defend itself against the attacks of a dog.[21] No\nsane ethnologist or philologer will insist that all these conceptions\nare related _genetically_, that there is nothing accidental in the\nrepetition of the idea. The dog is prominent in animal mythology; one of\nhis functions is to watch. It is quite possible, nay likely, that a\ndog, pure and simple, has strayed occasionally into this sphere of\nconceptions without any further organic meaning--simply as a baying,\nhostile watch-dog. But we cannot prove anything by an ignorant _non\npossumus_; the conception _may_, even if we cannot say _must_, after all\nin each case, have been derived from essentially the same source: the\ndead journeying upward to heaven interfered with by a coursing heavenly\nbody, the sun or the moon, or both. Anyhow, the organic quality of the\nIndo-European, or at least the Hindu myth makes it guide and\nphilosopher. From dual sun and moon coursing across the sky to the two\nhell-hounds, each step of development is no less clear than from Zeus\npater, \"Father Sky,\" to breezy Jove, the gentleman about town with his\nescapades and amours. To reverse the process, to imagine that the Hindus\nstarted with two visionary dogs and finally identified them with sun and\nmoon--that is as easy and natural as it is for a river to flow up the\nhill back to its source.\n\n\nMAX MUeLLER'S CERBERUS.\n\nThe rudiment of the present essay in Comparative Mythology was published\nby the writer some years ago in a learned journal, under the title, \"The\ntwo dogs of Yama in a new role.\"[22] My late lamented friend, Max\nMueller, the gifted writer who knew best of all men how to rivet the\nattention of the cultivated public upon questions of this sort, did me\nthe honor to notice my proposition in an article in the _London Academy_\nof August 13, 1892 (number 1058, page 134-5), entitled \"Professor\nBloomfield's Contributions to the Interpretation of the Veda.\" In this\narticle he seems to try to establish a certain similarity between his\nconception of the Kerberos myth and my own. This similarity seems to me\nto be entirely illusory. Professor Mueller's own last words on the\nsubject in the Preface of his _Contributions to the Science of\nMythology_ (p. xvi.), will make clear the difference between our views.\nHe identifies, as he always has identified, Kerberos with the Vedic stem\n_carvara_, from which is derived _carvar[=i]_, \"night.\" To quote his own\nwords: \"The germ of the idea ... must be discovered in that nocturnal\ndarkness, that _c[=a]rvaram tamas_, which native mythologists in India\nhad not yet quite forgotten in post-Vedic times.\" With such a view my\nown has not the least point of contact. Cabala, the name of one of the\ndogs, means \"spotted, bright\"; it is the name of the sun-dog; it is\nquite the opposite of the _c[=a]rvaram tamas_. The name of the moon-dog,\nand, by transfer, the dog of the night, is Cy[=a]ma or Cy[=a]va \"black,\"\nnot Cabala, nor Carvara. The association of the two dogs with day and\nnight is the association of sun and moon with their respective diurnal\ndivisions, and nothing more. Of Cimmerian gloom there can be nothing in\nthe myth primarily, because it deals at the beginning with heaven, and\nnot with hell; with an auspicious, and not a gloomy, vision of life\nafter death.\n\n\nCERBERUS AND COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY.\n\nIn conclusion I would draw the attention of those scholars, writers, and\npublicists that have declared bankruptcy against the methods and results\nof Comparative Mythology to the present attempt to establish an\nIndo-European naturalistic myth. I would ask them to consider, in the\nlight of the Veda, that it is probable that the early notions of future\nlife turn to the visible heaven with its sun and moon, rather than to\nthe topographically unstable and elusive caves and gullies that lead to\na wide-gated Hades. In heaven, therefore, and not in hell, is the likely\nbreeding spot of the Cerberus myth. On the way to heaven there is but\none pair that can have shaped itself reasonably in the minds of\nprimitive observers into a pair of Cerberi. Sun and moon, the Veda\ndeclares, are the Cerberi. In due time, and by gradual stages, the\nheaven myth became a hell myth. The Vedic seers had no Pluto, no Hades,\nno Styx, and no Charon; yet they had the pair of dogs. Now when Yama and\nhis heaven become Pluto and hell, then, and only then, Yama's dogs are\non a plane with the three-headed, or two-headed, Greek Kerberos. Is it\nnot likely that the chthonic hell visions of the Greeks were also\npreceded by heavenly visions, and that Kerberos originally sprang from\nheaven? Consider, too, the breadth and the persistence of these ideas,\ntheir simple background, and their natural transition from one feature\nto another in the myth of Cerberus; that is, the notions of sun and moon\n(day and night) in their relation to the precarious life of man upon the\nearth, his death, and his future life. For my part, I do not believe\nthat the honest critics of the methods and results of Comparative\nMythology, though they have been made justly suspicious by the many\nfailures in this field, will ever successfully \"run past, straightway,\nthe two four-eyed dogs, the spotted and the dark, the Cabal[=a]u, the\nbrood of Saram[=a].\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] _Iliad_ viii. 368; _Odyssey_ xi. 623.\n\n[2] _Theogony_, 311 ff.; cf. also 769 ff.\n\n[3] _Republic_, 588 C.\n\n[4] Baumeister, volume I., page 620 (figure 690).\n\n[5] Baumeister, volume I., page 379 (figure 415).\n\n[6] Baumeister, volume I., page 653 (figure 721).\n\n[7] Baumeister, volume I., page 663 (figure 730). See the Frontispiece\nand its explanation.\n\n[8] _American Journal of Archaeology_, volume XI., page 14 (figure 12,\npage 15).\n\n[9] _Custos opaci pervigil regni canis._ Seneca.\n\n[10] _Inferno_, Canto vi., 13 ff.\n\n[11] See p. 99 of the Teubner edition of his writings.\n\n[12] Fulgentius, Liber I., Fabula VI., de Tricerbero, p. 20 of the\nTeubner edition.\n\n[13] Both Cankara, the great Hindu theologian and commentator of the\nUpanishads, as well as all modern interpreters of the Upanishads, have\nfailed to see the sense of this passage.\n\n[14] Cf. the notion of the sun as the \"highest death\" in\n_T[=a]ittir[=i]va Br[=a]hmana_, i. 8. 4.\n\n[15] See Ernst Kuhn, Festgruss an Otto von Boehtlingk, page 68 ff.\n\n[16] Similar notions in Russia and Russian Asia are reported by Wsevolod\nMiller, Atti del iv. _Congresso Internazionale degli Orientalisti_, vol.\nii. p. 43; and by Casartelli, _Babylonian and Oriental Record_, iv. 266\nff. They are most likely derived from Iranian sources.\n\n[17] See _American Journal of Philology_, vol. XI., p. 355.\n\n[18] Similarly in Greek [Greek: Aiante] means Ajax and Teukros; see\nDelbrueck, _Vergleichende Syntax_, i. 137.\n\n[19] See Usener, Goetternamen, p. 303 ff.\n\n[20] Max Mueller, _Contributions to the Science of Mythology_, p. 240.\n\n[21] Brinton, _The Myths of the New World_. Second Edition, p. 265.\n\n[22] Presented to the American Oriental Society at its meeting May 5,\n1891; and printed in its Journal, Vol. XV., pp. 163 ff.\n\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------+\n|Transcriber's Notes:                                    |\n|Standardized Punctuation.                               |\n|Page 29: Changed whomsover to whomsoever.               |\n|Page 34: Changed [Greek: Kebreros] to [Greek: Kerberos].|\n|Footnote 18: Changed I. 137. to i. 137.                 |\n+--------------------------------------------------------+","title":"Cerberus, the dog of Hades: The history of an idea","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":7265}