652 THE HADES OF HOMER. 



ISTor is tliere any reference in Homer to Cerberus, so far as the 

 descent to Hades is concerned. Tliis is the description of Yirgil : 



" Cerberus hsec ingens latratu regna trifanci 

 Personat." 



Among those whom Ulysses encountered in Hades was Hercules, 

 an image [iidwXov), who adverted to his having been sent to bring 

 Cerberus to the upper regions, "because it was thought that there 

 was no contest more difficult than this." Hesiod in his Theogony 

 refers to Cerberus as " a fierce dog, that keeps guard in front of the 

 mansions of the infernal god; a ruthless dog, the irresistible and 

 ineffable flesh-devoui-er ; Cerberus, dog of hell, with brazen voice and 

 with iifty heads." 



4. A difference is easily observable in the manner of conversing 

 with the souls of the dead, so far as regard is had to the narrative of 

 Homer and of Virgil. Achilles (Iliad XXIII. 103) employed this 

 Linguage respecting the dead : 



Kqi ilv 'AtSao Sop-oifftv 

 ^w%)7 Kai hSioXov, drap tpplviQ ovk ivi TrdfiTrav- 



By (ppivsq, we may imderstand the power of reason and judgment. 

 Achilles, accordingly, affirmed that in the dwellings of Hades, " the 

 dead are a spirit and an image," but that they have no power of 

 reason and judgment. Others, with seemingly little reason, regard 

 ^pkvsq as the body, or perhaps the vitals. Circe said respecting 

 Tiresias : roore (ppivs<^ ifx-sdoi eiffiv. Brown thus writes : " Homer 

 evidently entertained some vague notion of the impossibility of the 

 soul existing in a state of activity unless united to some immortal 

 body. ' The blood of the slaughtered victim is the device resorted to 

 in order to supply that bodily vigour which is necessary to the 

 activity of the spiritual principle."* An American editor of the 

 Odyssey says ; "In the time of Homer, the two main causes of life 

 were considered to be the breath {(poxrj) and the blood. As the 

 shades in Hades were destitute of blood, their existence was only a 

 kind of half-life; but when the corporeal element was added (i.e., 

 when they dz'ank blood), sense and the power of reflection returned. "t 

 Even though it is said of Tiresias that his power of reason and 



* Greek Classical Literature, p. 95, 

 t Oweu's Odyssey, p. 412. 



