Case file · Sacred site
The Gate of Hades at Cape Tainaron
At Cape Tainaron, the southern tip of mainland Greece, a cave by the temple of Poseidon was pointed out as the passage through which Heracles dragged Cerberus up from the underworld.
160 CE · 36.39, 22.48 · status: legend
The account
Pausanias (3.25.5) visited and noted drily that no road led underground through the cave. The site also had an oracle of the dead, and poets from Pindar on used Tainaron as an entrance to Hades.
The sceptical view
Pausanias himself doubted that a god kept a dog there, suggesting the 'hound of Hades' was originally a deadly snake.