CERBERUS, in Greek mythology, the dog who guarded the entrance to the lower world. According to Hesiod (Theog., he was a 50-headed monster, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. He was variously represented with one, two, or (usually) three heads, often with the tail of a snake or with snakes growing from his head or twined round his body. One of the tasks imposed upon Heracles was to fetch Cerberus from below to the upper world, a favourite subject of ancient vase paintings.
' CERDIC (d. 534), founder of the West Saxon kingdom, is described as an ealdorman who in 495 landed with his son Cynric in Hampshire, where he was attacked at once by the Britons, under Natanleod. Nothing more is heard of him until 5o8, when he de feated the Britons with great slaughter. Strengthened by fresh arrivals of Saxons, he gained another victory in 519 at Certices ford, the modern Charford, and in this year took the title of king. Turning westward, Cerdic appears to have been defeated by the Britons in 52o at Badbury or Mount Badon, in Dorset, and in 527 yet another fight with the Britons is recorded. His last work was the conquest of the Isle of Wight (S3o), probably in the interest of some Jutish allies.
See E. Guest, Origines Celticae (1883) ; Bede, Historiae ecclesiasticae geniis Anglorum libri, v., ed. C. Plummer (Oxford, 1896) ; Gildas, De excidio Britanniae, ed. Th. Mommsen (1898) ; Nennius, Historia Brit tonum, ed., Th. Mommsen (1898) ; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, edited by C. Plummer (Oxford, 1892-99) .