Heracles and Cerberus
Heracles Stop 8 of 9
In brief
- For his twelfth and final labor, Heracles was ordered to bring back Cerberus, the three-headed hound that guarded the gates of the underworld.
- He descended into Hades through the cave at Cape Tainaron, the same entrance Orpheus had once used, and won the underworld god's grudging permission to take the beast.
- Heracles wrestled Cerberus into submission with his bare hands, dragged him up to the world of the living, and later returned him safely to his post.
The twelfth and final labor set for Heracles by King Eurystheus was also the most daunting: bring back Cerberus, the monstrous three-headed hound that guarded the gates of the underworld, preventing the dead from ever leaving and the living from ever entering uninvited.
Heracles descended into the underworld through the same cave at Cape Tainaron that other mortals, Orpheus among them, had used to reach the realm of the dead. Guided partway by Hermes and Athena, he came at last before Hades and Persephone on their thrones and made his request plainly.
Hades, more amused than threatened, agreed to let Heracles take Cerberus, but only if he could subdue the beast using nothing but his bare hands, no weapons of any kind. Heracles found the great hound at the gates and, protected by his lion-skin cloak from its bites, wrestled all three heads into submission by sheer strength.
He hauled the growling Cerberus up out of the underworld and into the sunlight, presenting the creature to a terrified Eurystheus, who reportedly hid inside a large storage jar at the sight of it and begged Heracles to take the beast away again. True to his word, Heracles returned Cerberus safely to his post at the gates of the dead, completing his final labor.
