Mythological Creatures in Dante's Inferno: Cerberus and Geryon

1. MYTHOLOGICAL ANIMALS IN ITALIAN LITERATURE DANTE – THE DIVINE COMEDY: CERBERUS and GERYON APE – ITIS PININFARINA

2. The Inferno is the first section of Dante's three-part poem, The Divine Comedy. Throughout Dante's epic journey into the depths of Inferno he encounters thirty monsters and five hybrid creatures.  The most significant of these monsters are of central importance to his journey and to the narrative, as they not only challenge Dante's presence in Inferno, but are guardians of Hell, keeping in order or guarding the "perduta gente" (lost people).  The prominent beasts are Cerberus and Geryon. The monsters in Dante's Inferno are drawn almost directly from classical mythology. He creates some small demons and other beings, but the major monsters are taken from Greek and Roman lore. Dante uses monsters in his poem for many purposes. They all have specific jobs and are not just there purely to freight the reader.

3. CERBERUS Canto VI Here we meet Cerberus, the "demon of the pit," guarding the gates of hell against the entrance of the living who were interested in exploring the underworld in Greek mythology. In the instances where Cerberus was overcome, it often required a trick. In Virgil, the Sybil of Cumae lulled Cerberus to sleep with drugged honey cakes in order to permit Aeneas fuller entry to the underworld Cerbero, fiera crudele e diversa,con tre gole caninamente latrasovra la gente che quivi è sommersa. Li occhi ha vermigli, la barba unta e atra,e ’l ventre largo, e unghiate le mani;graffia li spirti ed iscoia ed isquatra. Cerberus, monster cruel and uncouth,With his three gullets like a dog is barkingOver the people that are there submerged.Red eyes he has, and unctuous beard and black,And belly large, and armed with claws his hands;He rends the spirits, flays, and quarters them.

4. Cerberus, a three-headed dog, guards the gluttons at the entrance to the third circle of hell. The scene is that the gluttons are in a ditch of foul-smelling mud and are subject to eternal rain and hail. Cerberus howls and claws them constantly and he clearly represents the sins that he is guarding. Cerberus' three heads and his insatiable appetite (he turns to Dante and Virgil and starts moving towards them until Virgil throws dirt into the three mouths and the monster's appetite is quenched) reflect the sins of the gluttons. Their situation in hell also represents their sins in life, for they are like pigs rooting around in mud.

5. The classical role of Cerberus is almost the same as the way that Dante uses the monster. In classical mythology, Cerberus is used to guard the gates of Hades, however in the poem, Dante uses him to guard something else. His hunger is the same in both stories. The classical Cerberus guards the gates of hell and allowed all to go in but none to come out. There are few occasions where the monster was passed on the way out. These include the myths of Orpheus, Hercules and Aeneas. In the story of Orpheus, Cerberus is lulled to sleep by the flute of Orpheus as he enters the underworld to retrieve his love Eurydice. In the story of Hercules, he has to go down to the underworld and bring Cerberus back as one of his twelve labours. Finally, the story of Aeneas is the most important of these myths, for in the Aeneid, Aeneas gains exit from hell by feeding Cerberus cakes filled with sedatives. This use of food to calm Cerberus in the Aeneid is clearly the reason that Virgil knows how to handle the monster. Cerberus is another example of Dante using a classical monster to serve a specific purpose in the poem. In this case Cerberus serves as a guard over specific sins which he happens to represent in his own demeanor.

6. Canto VI: summary Dante wakes to find himself in the third circle, which is the place of torment for epicures and gluttons who were distracted from God by the enjoyment of food. A steady heavy rain of water, hail, and snow pours down on the accursed, and Cerberus, the mythological three-headed demon-dog, claws his prisoners while barking viciously. The monster turns and snarls at the two travelers, but Virgil silences him by throwing a clod of dirt into his gaping mouth. As the two walk over the prostrate souls, one lifts his head to speak to Dante. He is a citizen of Florence, known to Dante, and nicknamed Ciacco in his former life. He tells Dante that the vying parties in Florence, the city of envy, will war and one will conquer the other. He also tells him that many of the politicians of his time are now deep in the lower circles of Hell being punished for various sins. Virgil says Ciacco will lie on the ground until the Final Judgement of all souls. They leave Ciacco and continue wading through the soaked souls until they meet Plutus, the ancient god of riches, at the descent to the next circle.

7. GERYON Canto XVII Ecco la fiera con la coda aguzza,che passa i monti e rompe i muri e l'armi!Ecco colei che tutto il mondo appuzza! (vv. 1-3) Behold the beast who bears the pointed tail, who crosses mountains shatters weapons, walls! Behold the one whose stench fills all the world! Nel vano tutta sua coda guizzava,torcendo in sù la venenosa forcach'a guisa di scorpion la punta armava.(vv. 25-57) And all his tail was quivering in the void while twisting upwards its envenomed fork which had a tip just like a scorpion's.

8. Who was Geryon? This mythological character was a giant, perhaps a King of the Balearic Islands. He fed his flock of sheep with the human flesh of his guests whom he treacherously killed. Hercules killed him. Geryon was said to have three bodies in one, but, as far as we know, all these bodies were of the same nature. Dante used this mythological detail and figured it with others drawn from medieval zoology. Medieval bestiaries tell of monsters having three natures and scholars have repeatedly pointed out models for Dante's Geryon; but none of them coincide exactly with Dante's creature. The creation of this original demonic figure is certainly due to Dante's imagination. Geryon's triune nature symbolizes Fraud. He is, however, a living symbol, and Dante responds physically to his presence: he is fascinated by this monster just as a rabbit is fascinated by the charm of the snake. A sign of this mental paralysis is the total lack of any comment on the vision of the tail. Only the voice of Virgil breaks Dante's horrified attention, and he follows him mechanically.

10. He is the only triple-hybrid that Dante and Virgil come across, and this strengthens his representation as "quella sozza imagine di froda" (that impure image of dishonesty), as the first part of him that they see is his face, which resembles that of a "uom giusto" (an honest man), hiding his poisonous tail and beastly body. The succession of Geryon's bodily parts represent the chronological sequence of fraudulent activity as his honest face engages initial trust, the intricate patterns painted on him confuse and complicate and at the end of the process the sting in his tail brings about death or loss.  This emphasizes Geryon's detailed association with fraud and this reflects Dante's classification of sin, as the sins of fraud are considered the most serious and these sinners receive the harshest punishments.

11. By making him a tripartite beast, Dante metamorphoses Geryon into a fantastic creature like the classical Chimera, which is described as having "the head of a lion, the body of a she-goat, and the tail of a snake".  Dante's readers would have recognized this association, as well as connecting Geryon with the familiar images of the “draconopede” or serpent with a human face, first mentioned in Genesis and the locusts in Revelations whose "faces were like human faces" and who had "tails like scorpions“.

12. Canto XVII: summary Dante now sees that the creature has the face of a man, the body of a serpent, and two hairy paws. Approaching it, he and Virgil descend into the Third Zone of this circle’s Third Ring. Virgil stays to speak with the beast, sending Dante ahead to explore the zone, inhabited by those who were violent against art (Virgil has earlier denoted them as the Usurers). Dante sees that these souls must sit beneath the rain of fire with purses around their necks; these bear the sinners’ respective family emblems, which each “with hungry eyes consumed” (XVII.51). As they appear unwilling to talk, Dante returns to Virgil. In the meantime, Virgil has talked the human-headed monster into transporting them down to the Eighth Circle of Hell. Fearful but trusting of his guide, Dante climbs onto the beast’s serpentine back; Virgil addresses their mount as “Geryon.” To Dante’s terror and amazement, Geryon rears back and suddenly takes off into the air, circling slowly downward. After setting them down safely among the rocks at the edge of the Eighth Circle of Hell, Geryon returns to his domain.

13. FROM PAST TO PRESENT:HARRY POTTER’S SAGA Fluffy, the three-headed dog: Hagrid's pet dog and guardian of the Sorcerer's Stone was sold to Hagrid by "a Greek chappie I met in the pub." (though in the movie, it has been changed to "an Irish chappie.") Fluffy is a giant three-headed dog provided by Hagrid to guard the trapdoor leading to the underground chamber where the Philosopher's Stone was hidden until the end of Philosopher's Stone. The only known way to get past Fluffy is to lull him to sleep by playing music. Fluffy is based on Cerberus, the three-headed dog from Greek Mythology that guards the gates to the underworld. As with Fluffy, Cerberus was lulled to sleep with music by Orpheus.

14. 4AF Itis Pininfarina • Bibliography: • "The Beasts and Monsters in Dante's Inferno." 123HelpMe.com. 26 Jun 2011 • <http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=4309>. • www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/LD/numbers/02/cherchi.html • www.squidoo.com/infernocanto_vi • www.freeessays.cc/db/18/ehc207.shtml • www.bookrags.com/notes/inf/PART6.html • http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Fluffy • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ • http://www.powerpointstyles.com/