Editing Orthrus (section)

==Similarities with Cerberus==
Orthrus bears a close resemblance to [[Cerberus]], the hound of Hades. The classical scholar [[Arthur Bernard Cook]] called Orthrus Cerberus' "doublet".<ref>Cook, [https://archive.org/stream/zeusstudyinancie03cook#page/410/mode/1up p. 410].</ref> According to Hesiod, Cerberus, like Orthrus was the offspring of Echidna and Typhon. And like Orthrus, Cerberus was multi-headed. The earliest accounts gave Cerberus fifty,<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+311 311&ndash;312].</ref> or even one hundred heads,<ref>Pindar fragment F249a/b SM, from a lost Pindar poem on Heracles in the underworld, according to a scholia on the ''Iliad'', Gantz  p. 22; Ogden, p. 105, with n. 182.</ref> though in literature three heads for Cerberus became the standard.<ref>Ogden, pp. 105&ndash;106, with n. 183.</ref> However, in art, often only two heads for Cerberus are shown.<ref>Ogden, p. 106, wonders whether "such images salute or establish a tradition of a two-headed Cerberus, or are we to imagine a third head concealed behind the two that can be seen?"</ref> Cerberus was also usually depicted with a snake tail, just as Orthrus was sometimes. Both became guard dogs, with Cerberus guarding the gates of [[Hades]], and both were overcome by Heracles in one of his labours.