A small rant on Cerberus

[guppiecat]

(Since it was popular over on FB, I'm copying here.)

I'm seeing the "no one knows what kind of dog Cerberus was" post going around again, so I feel a need to mention that Κέρβερος was first mentioned in Homer and Hesiod, which places him at - the earliest - as 800 BCE, or less than 3,000 years ago. At that time, in Greece, the dominant dog breed was the greyhound.

Homer's/Hesiod's Cerberus could not have been a dachshund, as that breed is (1) German and (2) just over 300 years old. Similarly, the chihuahua is out, being around 150 years old (and it's predecessor breed, the techichi, is only about 1,200 years old). Even the poodle is out, being only 2,000 years old.

Assuming Hades can travel and leave Greece, in addition to the greyhound, reasonable dog breeds for Cerberus include the akita inu, the greenland sled dog, the afghan hound, basenji, tibetan mastiff, or the saluki.

HOWEVER, this assumes that Κέρβερος is the name for a single immortal dog. If Κέρβερος is a TITLE given to Hades' dog, which lives a mortal - though extended (as is common for those who associate with mythical gods) - lifespan until he either dies or gets to retire as a Naberius, then Cerberus could be unrestricted by breed.

Moreover, if we assume that, when he needs a new one, Hades just goes to the shelter and picks up three dogs to smush together, there is no reason to believe that all three heads would come from the same breed of dog.

(And there are advantages to picking specific breed traits, such as seeing, hearing, and barking, to maximize capabilities in a guard dog.)

Comments

[quadong]

Is that a real post going around Facebook, or is this a hilarious exercise in guessing what might be going around on Facebook? I mean, I love it.

[hitchhiker]

:D

[pauamma]

Nice to see you here!

[carbonel]

I'm just glad that no one proposed that he was actually an aardvark.

[tigertoy]

Heh. How many people remember Cerebus (well enough to know that his name was not actually Cerberus)?

[tigertoy]

I know nothing about dog breeds in ancient Greece, but I do know that farmers herded sheep back then, and also that they had wolves to worry about. I would speculate that the guard dogs farmers kept to help convince the wolves to eat something other than sheep were similar to modern dogs farmers use for such purposes: large, as big as wolves, and heavier built. Dogs like the Anatolian Shepherd and Anatolian Shepherd. Sighthounds like the Greyhound, Afghan, and Saluki are bred to hunt, detecting their prey by sight, and to run fast over relatively short distances, rather than to do well in combat. I would suggest that the dogs that actually guarded sheep are less remembered because they were owned by peasants, while the hunting dogs were the ones owned by rich and powerful people. Breeds of dogs prized by the ruling class would more actively managed by humans, while peasant's dogs were probably more free to choose their own mates.

Eh, I'll stop rambling. I may well be recapitulating discussion on that other social network that I will never use for ethical reasons. It's good to see some activity here.

[guppiecat]

This is a really good point. It never crossed my mind that our data on ancient breeds would be tainted by who was rich enough to have records of the breeds vs people that just needed a dog.