A constellation representing the three-headed monster that guarded the gates of
Hades. It is depicted being held in the outstretched hand of Hercules, who
overpowered Cerberus and dragged it from the Underworld to the surface as one
of his labours. The constellation was introduced by Johannes Hevelius in 1687,
replacing the branch from the tree of the golden apples that had previously been depicted in the hand of Hercules. Although, in mythology, Cerberus was supposedly a
three-headed dog, Hevelius and all subsequent map makers depicted it with three
snake heads.
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Cerberus held in the grasp of Hercules, as shown on the Firmamentum Sobiescianum star atlas of Johannes Hevelius (1690). It is shown in mirror image, as it would appear on a celestial globe. Image © Tartu Observatory Virtual Museum.
The English engraver John Senex, a friend of Edmond Halley, combined Cerberus
with the apple branch, Ramus, in 1721 to produce Cerberus et Ramus, the
serpents in this case being wrapped around the branch, and this is how it was
subsequently shown on the Uranographia atlas of Johann Bode (see illustration below).
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Cerberus et Ramus shown in the Uranographia of Johann Bode (1801).
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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