Wednesday 17 June 2015

Cerberus, the hound of hell!

Introduction

In Greek and Roman myth, Cerberus (pronounced Kerberos) was the 3-headed hound who guarded the entrance to Hades or Hell.  His job was to prevent the dead from escaping and the living from entering.  The hound seems to have accomplished the former perfectly, but at least some of the greatest Greek heroes did manage to enter the underworld whilst alive and then leave again.  For example, Orpheus managed to pass Cerberus in both directions - possibly by soothing the beast with his music - and Heracles actually captured the beast as his 12th labour!

Cerberus was sibling to a number of other monsters including the Lernaean Hydra and the Chimera.  So I suppose you could say that he (she?) came from a somewhat dysfunctional family.  I don't suppose that anyone wanted them as neighbours!

Cerberus

 There are several manufacturers who make 28mm models of 3-headed dogs.  I compared all of the ones that I discovered; in the end I chose to buy the Foundry figure.  This model comes in 3 parts: the body & central head and the 2 other heads.  Interestingly the outer heads are identical parts, though I wouldn't have realised this had I not built the piece.  They did need a little filler to mate them seamlessly to the body, but nothing too bad.

 I was aiming for a colouring similar to a brindled mastiff.  This should have some quite visible, if poorly defined, stripes on the body.  However the wash I used was a bit darker than intended and the stripes aren't really visible.  Still, the black elements (ears, muzzle and eye sockets) help to give the hound a sinister appearance nevertheless.

Here's a size comparison with some humans.  In this case, they are 2 Wargames Factory Greeks and a Wargames Factory Numidian, all recently completed and added to my collection.  Note that the WF Greeks are quite tall and chunky figures; the Numidian is more average for a 28mm person.  Even so, the hound is clearly quite a monster: he's as big as a horse (if not quite so tall)!

Conclusion

Cerberus is a very useful monster who ought by rights to strike fear into the hearts of all bar the stoutest of heroes.  In a game it wouldn't be unreasonable to give him any number of attributes, depending on the scenario, such as fiery breath (maybe) or regeneration (he never seemed to die - or perhaps he's already undead?).

However, I think that all the ancient heroes were taking the wrong approach.  The easy and obvious way to defeat a creature like this is to show him 2 squirrels, throw them in opposite directions and just watch the hound tear itself apart in an attempt to chase both of the squirrels at once!

18 comments:

  1. Great mini. Yes Squirrels and a big stick. Also pork scratchings :)
    Quite a useful mini. Can be used for a lot of other settings.

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    1. Hmm - how about we tie the pork scratchings to the squirrels? Would that make it a better plan?

      Yes, I can think of at least one much more modern setting where I could use a large, 3-headed dog. I think I'll call him "Fluffy" :-) .;

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  2. I've had my eye on this mini for a while (along with their broze bull). Lovely paint job!

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    1. Ah, yes - the bronze bull. I love that model; you can see my version here: http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2014/05/survivors-vikings-and-lot-of-bull.html

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  3. A very impressive beastie, Hugh.

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  4. Wonderful creature from myth and legend Hugh. Certainly one I'll be looking to pick up when I finally turn my attention to "7th Voyages". Thanks for posting him up and a wonderful paint-job on him too.

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    1. Glad you like him! He's definitely one of the original "guardian" monsters in legend, so a very fitting opponent for any heroes who wish to pass through his territory.

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    1. I agree; he's a nice model. Now I need to find a Hydra and Chimera that I like as well - too many of the Chimera models have wings, whereas the original Greek one was notable for *not* being able to fly.

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  6. The squirrel tactic is a good one. That sure is one mighty beast

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    1. Yes, it sounds as if squirrels are the way to defeat Cerberus. I wonder why none of the ancient Greek heroes thought of that?

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  7. That does look a formidable beast to face - another possible opponent for your Argonauts maybe ?

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    1. I think that's exactly what will happen, in due course :-) . Thanks, Joe.

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  8. Hell of a hound C6! Great job dude.

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  9. That's nicely done Colgar ^_^ ... Since you are calling him Fluffy, now you just have to add miniatures of Hermione, Ron and Harry for a Hogwarts diorama. :)

    By the way, thanks so much for adding me to your blog roll. At the moment. I seem to be having problems adding new blogs to my blog roll i.e. I can't. :( I have tried launching a new blogroll as well as launching the blog on Chrome but the problem persists. Will definitely add you if I get it sorted out.

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    1. P.S. If you have encountered this problem before i.e. not being able to add to the blogroll, and solved it, please do let me know how to go about it. From my research so far, most solve it by just starting a new blog roll but that doesn't work for me. Blogger is driving me crazy with its random problems. :(

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    2. It finally works again thanks to a solution by a fellow blogger. Your blog has been added to my blogroll. ^_^

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