Legends of the Stars by Patrick Moore

Author:Patrick Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752496634
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

Hercules faces Cerberus

He crept forward, while Cerberus reared up, hissing and growling. Then Hercules leaped, and landed full on the dog’s back. What a yelping and a snarling Cerberus set up! He tried his best to bite Hercules, first with one head and then with another, but he soon found that he was held in a grip of iron. Then he began to struggle, and once he almost threw Hercules off, but before he could close his jaws to bite he was caught once more. For more than an hour the fight went on, until at last Cerberus knew that he had met his match. He stopped wriggling, and his three mouths hung open, while his tail drooped on the ground.

‘Upon my word!’ muttered King Pluto. ‘I would never have believed it. If I had thought that you had even a chance of conquering my watchdog, I would never have allowed you to try. You cannot really mean to take him to your cousin?’

‘That is my purpose, and you have given me your solemn promise.’ Hercules stood up, holding Cerberus by the scruff of one of his necks; the dog was really frightened now, and whimpered pitifully, wondering whether Hercules meant to dash him on the hard rocks and make an end of him. ‘Send a message to Charon and tell him to be ready with his boat. I will not return to your kingdom, but I will put Cerberus back in the tunnel, as I said I would do. He will certainly know which way to go.’

Pluto was not at all happy about it, but he had no choice, so he had to give Hercules back his spear and lionskin and then let him depart. As Hercules passed through the gates, and walked back across the forest of dead trees, he looked over his shoulder and saw King Pluto still standing there, rubbing his injured shoulder and looking even gloomier than before.

Ghosts were flitting to and fro, and again Hercules caught sight of the Gorgon Medusa, but he did not linger; he was only too anxious to see the last of the Underworld, and he was glad when he had at last crossed the river in Charon’s boat and was back in the tunnel that led up to the mountain-top. He had no burning branch to guide him, and he had to make sure that Cerberus did not wriggle free from his grip, but after a while he saw the light ahead, and stepped back into the open air. Never had the sunlight seemed so fresh and glorious. ‘I could never live down there,’ he thought, gazing back down the tunnel. ‘As for you, Cerberus, I must keep my word to your master, but if you have any sense you will stay in these green fields instead of making your way back into the darkness.’

But Cerberus did not like the sun; he growled and squirmed, closing his eyes and longing to be back in the caves he loved. Hercules

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