Cerberus

In Greek mythology, the three-headed dog which guarded the entrance to Hades, the underworld.

Some early representations endow him with 50 or 100 heads, and he is often depicted with a mane and serpent's tail.

Cerberus appeared in a number of myths. A sibyl drugged the dog so that the Trojan hero Aenas could pass through to visit his father Anchises and learn of the greatness of Rome; Orpheus lulled him to sleep with music while attempting to retrieve his wife, Eurydice; and in the 12th labour of Heracles, set by King Eurystheus of Argos, the beast was dragged to Earth and back with the hero's bare hands.

Cerberus

Genus of viviparous (bearing their young live) and aquatic snakes. They are common to the rivers and estuaries of the East Indies from Bengal to Australia.

C. rhynchops has large ventral scales. None of the species is fatally poisonous to humans.

Classification Cerberus is in family Colubridae, suborder Serpentes, order Squamata, class Reptilia.