Heraclitus, [Greek: Peri apiston] 331, states
that Kerberos had two pups. They always attended their father, and
therefore he appeared to be three-headed. The mythographer
Palaephatos(39) states that Kerberos was considered three-headed from
his name [Greek: Trikarenos] which he obtained from the city Trikarenos
in Phliasia. And a late Roman rationalistic mythographer by the name of
Fulgentius[11] tells us that Petronius defined Cerberus as the lawyer of
Hades, apparently because of his three jaws, or the cumulative glibness
of three tongues. Fulgentius himself has a _fabula_ in which he says
that Cerberus means _Creaboros_, that is, "flesh-eating," and that the
three heads of Cerberus are respectively, infancy, youth, and old age,
through which death has entered the circle of the earth--_per quas
introivit mors in orbem terrarum_.[12]
A MODERN VIEW.
"_Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch' entrate_"
Can we bid this "_schwankende Gestalt_," this monstrous vision, floating
about upon the filmy photographs of murky Hades, stand still, emerge
into light, and assume clear and reasonable outlines?
"Hence loathed melancholy of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born.
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