Page "Cerberus" Paragraph 12

Most occurrences in ancient literature revolve around the basis of the threat of Cerberus being overcome to allow a living being access to the underworld ; in the Aeneid Cerberus was lulled to sleep after being tricked into eating drugged honeycakes and Orpheus put the creature to sleep with his music.

Capturing Cerberus alive was the twelfth and final labour of Heracles.

In Dante Alighieri's Inferno, Canto VI, the " great worm " Cerberus is found in the Third Circle of Hell, where he oversees and rends to pieces those who have succumbed to gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins.