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[6] But Homer, who was the first to call the creature brought by Heracles the hound of Hades,1 did not give it a name or describe it as of manifold form, as he did in the case of the Chimaera.2 Later poets gave the name Cerberus, and though in other respects they made him resemble a dog, they say that he had three heads. Homer, however, does not imply that he was a dog, the friend of man, any more than if he had called a real serpent the hound of Hades.

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