Rowling's Presentation Of Cerberus In Ancient Greek Mythology

Cerberus is depicted many times in ancient sources and is described as a monstrous dog that protected the Underworld, most known through the myth of Heracles. Rowling describes Cerberus (Fluffy) as a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and the floor. It had three heads; three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.

The sources we have for this usually disagree on how many heads he had, as Hesiod described him as “the savage, the bronze-barking dog of Hades, fifty-headed, and powerful, and without pity." Pausanias states that:

But Hecataeus of Miletus gave a plausible explanation, stating that a terrible serpent lived

Herodotus mentions phoenixes in his Histories from the 5th Century BCE. He states very clearly that he had not seen the Phoenix, only in painting, and that he is simply retelling stories of others. He states that the Phoenix’s “plumage is partly golden and partly red. He is most like an eagle in shape and size.” Rowling’s Phoenix is exactly the same as it is described as “a magnificent, swan-sized, scarlet bird with a long golden tail, beak and talons.” Both of these versions also originated from Egypt and live for a very long time.

Herodotus states that once a phoenix dies, its offspring carry its body a long way and then bury its ashes. This is different from Rowling’s story that a phoenix would be reborn out its own ashes. However, Ovid also writes about a phoenix, which is more similar to Rowling’s:

There is one bird which reproduces and renews itself…When this bird completes a fill five centuries of life… he builds a nest high among the palm branches…and dies… and they say that from the body of the dying bird is reproduced a little Phoenix which is destined to live just as many