What is Cerberus, and why Cerberus has three heads

(1)

 

First, metaphysical and theological concepts are hinted in greek mythology, not plainly revealed as one would like, but since nowadays people are more receptive to spirituality, this knowledge can begin to be revealed.

 

Proclus in his Platonic Theology says that Tartarus is both a place and a god, the lowest phase of any given realm. According to Proclus, he is the inspective guardian of any realm, surveying those souls that both descend and ascend.(2) This concept was perfectly depicted in the form of a dog, for what is a dog other than the inspective guardian of the land, prowling and sniffing around potential enemies? (3)

 

Now to the iconography of Cerberus:

 

Hades is depicted pointing his finger to the ground(4), signifying the Earth, with Cerberus by his side. 

Now both Porphyry and Eusebius said that Cerberus represents the three phases of the sun above the earth, morning, midday and sunset, and also Porphyry said that the sun below the earth is Hades. (5) 

 

 

The sun is also a perfect representation of an inspective guardian, since it surveys the land, during day, but invisible (lit. aides) at night (yet present since everything is full of God, or nothing is apart from God).

 

But the sun is first and foremost the symbol of the creative power or Logos, more representative of Zeus than it is commonly thought of Apollo.

 

It is a symbol of Nous, Intellect, which shines on all things, giving sight, form, and being to things. (6)

 

As the intelligilble power that pours (oureo) (7) down from high (ano) on all things, it is firstly the image of Ouranos’s genitals, the all inseminating, informing power, which, being severed by Kronos, falls into the sea, the western sky or sea, since all things seem to come to sight, alive, to form, to sprout from the earth from the inseminating power of the rays of the sun upon the earth and everything. In this sense he is also Priapus, Phanes, Eros and Protogonos.

 

As the intellective power (Nous) that gathers (swallows) all informative (logoic) principles it is Kronos(8), and as the rational, logoic and demiurgic power in the psychic creation it is Zeus, its iluminating rays in the form of Apollo, visibly in the form of Helios, and concealed in the form of Hades, and incarnate in the form of Dionysus or Bakchus.

 

The rays of the sun reflected by the moon, being the inseminating power from the sun, are allegorized as Persephone(9), which descends into the underworld, that is why the myth says she is raped and violated, because that creative, active principle does not belong to the mortal (passive) nature and the mortal world. (10)

 

Notes:

 

1 - Hades, Persephone, and Cerberus as a Group Statue. Attributed to: The Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at Cortyn on Crete. ca. Mid-2nd Century CE Heraklion Archeological Museum 

The statue depicts Zeus who also goes by the name Pluto, with Persephone, and the three-headed dog Cerberus. On top of Hades's head is the modus, a measurement utensil for grain. The statue depicts Persephone with her symbols on her forehead; a crescent moon, solar disk, and a snake. In Persephone's right hand is a sistrum, an ancient Egyptian musical instrument. Cerberus being part of the group statue solidifies the depiction of Hades and Persephone as underworld deities.

2 - “But Tartarus, says Olympiodorus, is the extremity of the universe, and subsists oppositely to Olympus. It is also a deity, the inspective guardian of that which is last in every order. Hence, there is a celestial Tartarus, in which Heaven concealed his offspring; a Saturnian Tartarus, in which likewise Saturn concealed his offspring; and also a Jovian of this kind, which is demiurgic.” Proclus on the Theology of Plato, Book VII. 

3 - “By Cerberus we must understand the discriminative part of the soul, of which a dog, on account of its sagacity, is an emblem; and the three heads signify the triple distinction of this part, into the intellective [or intuitional], cogitative [or rational], and opinionative powers.” The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries by Thomas Taylor  

4 - “Cerberus is represented with three heads, because the positions of the sun above the earth are three-rising, midday, and setting.”. Porphyry, On Cult Images, Fr. 8  

5 - “ for if he who in the present life is in subjection to his irrational part is truly in Hades, he who is superior to its dominion is likewise an inhabitant of a place totally different from Hades.” The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries by Thomas Taylor 

6 - “As the deity is of the nature of light, and dwells in an atmosphere of ethereal fire, and is invisible to sense that is busy about mortal life, He through translucent matter, as crystal or Parian marble or even ivory, led men on to the conception of his light, and through material gold to the discernment of the fire, and to his undefiled purity, because gold cannot be defiled.” Porphyry, On Cult Images, Fr. 2,  

 7 -  Ouranos, also from oureo nous, "dripping intellect"

 

8 - "But he shows that Saturn is connective of a divine intellect; and that Heaven is the intelligence, or intellectual perception of the first intelligibles. For sight, says he, looking to the things above, is Heaven. Hence Heaven subsists prior to every divine intellect, with which the mighty Saturn is replete; but intellectually perceives the things above, and such as are beyond the celestial order. The mighty Heaven therefore, is allotted a kingdom which is between the intelligible and intellectual orders." Proclus on the Theology of Plato, Chapter V, Book IV 

9 - “Kore is the seminal power, and Pluto the sun passing under the earth, and traversing the unseen world at the time of the winter solstice; and he is said to carry off Kore, who, while hidden beneath the earth, is lamented by her mother Demeter.” Porphyry, On Cult Images, Fr. 7 

10 - ““The soul,” says he, “descends Corically [or after the manner of Proserpine] into generation, * but is distributed into generation Dionysiacally, † and she is bound in body Prometheiacally ‡ and Titanically: she frees herself therefore from its bonds by exercising the strength of Hercules; but she is collected into one through the assistance of Apollo and the savior Minerva, by philosophical discipline of mind and heart purifying the nature.”” The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries by Thomas Taylor