That creature was a nightmare.
Three-headed, with gnashing teeth that spurted blood, with jaws that foamed poison, and a mane and tail that grew snakes.
It was so huge that it spanned the entire cave, and its bark would echo far and wide.
His tail was a hissing snake.
According to some stories, his eyes spewed fire.
It was so horrible, wrote (ancient Greek poet) Hesiod, that it could not be described, let alone overcome.
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The monster was called Cerberus, and from the eighth century BC it was known to the ancient Greeks and later to the Romans as the watchdog of the underground realm of the god Hades.
His task was to prevent anyone who dared to escape from the realm of the dead. (He also protected the underworld from unwanted visitors, but it goes without saying that there were not many of them).
Recently, the heat wave that engulfed Europe in July was named after him.
Strong storms, such as hurricanes and typhoons, are given names by meteorological services around the world to facilitate the exchange of information between meteorologists.
Tropical cyclone names are chosen simply from an internationally agreed list of everyday names and are repeated every six years - among the names given to Atlantic tropical storms this year are Emily, Cindy and Sean.
However, this does not apply to heat waves.
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Meteorologists are now debating whether naming heat waves is correct.
There is no international naming convention for extreme heat waves, and the current position of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which oversees storm names, is that it could distract from public health threats.
The organization argues that the science behind heatwave forecasting and issuing warnings is still too young to provide consistent and accurate predictions.
However, there are other opinions, according to which such names can direct attention precisely to the threat to health that is "largely underestimated and deeply misunderstood".
And while heat waves, generally defined as periods of unusually hot weather lasting longer than two days, are becoming more frequent, other organizations, instead of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), they begin to give them names.
In June 2022, local authorities in Seville launched a pilot project to call heat waves.
The following month, a heat wave followed, scorching the southern part of Spain with temperatures of 43 degrees Celsius.
It's called Zoe.
The latest heat waves, which have affected parts of Italy and southern Europe during which the temperature reaches 48,8 degrees Celsius, Italian weather website the weather called Kerber and Charon.
As of 2017, this site uses the names of mythological characters for the high pressure areas that produce extreme heat in Europe.
However, as these heat wave names reverberated around the world, false claims emerged that they were officially given by the Italian Meteorological Society.
In the case of Italy, the names were chosen unofficially and "somewhat sensationally", the Italian Meteorological Society told the BBC.
The spokesperson confirmed that the Society did not name the heat waves.
One of the reasons official weather services hesitate to give names to heat waves is that it is difficult to separate such disasters.
Heat waves are usually not such a pronounced phenomenon, but they can come together and affect several countries.
"The differences in the intensity of heat waves and the accompanying impacts on the areas they affect are significant," adds John Nearns, senior advisor for extreme high temperatures at the World Meteorological Organization.
"That precious information must not be allowed to compete with multiple names within the same weather system, where one country would give a name to a wave and another would not, or where during its life cycle a wave would be given multiple names.
"We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by further coordination between national services or the inevitable divisions and distractions that would destroy confidence in given forecasts and warnings."
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Nevertheless, people accepted the latest mythological names.
Maybe because they are not just names, they also contain a message.
Such an approach can be of particular importance given that we know that the probability of occurrence of heat waves as well as the increased overall average annual temperature are consequences of climate change caused by man.
On July 4, the total average annual temperature exceeded 17 degrees Celsius, the first time since the temperature has been measured, and heat waves are becoming more frequent and hotter.
Research has shown that the probability of a heat wave like the one that affected Southwestern Europe and North Africa in April 2023 was 100 times greater due to global warming.
And the greater risk of heat waves is taking a bigger toll: a study published in July estimated that 61.672 people would die from heat-related health problems in Europe in 2022.
The authors of the study called on governments to reassess and strengthen plans to prevent health problems caused by high temperatures and adapt to climate change.
On the surface, there are obvious reasons why the names Kerber and Charon might be suitable names for a heat wave.
Both names are associated with hell: Cerberus was a guard dog of the underworld, and Charon was a boatman who transported the dead on the river Styx.
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Meanwhile, the current Kerber heat wave has split into three distinct climate zones - or the three "heads" of the monster dog.
The deeper meaning of the name can be hidden there.
"Kerberus is supposed to be the guardian of the underworld," says Emma Stafford, professor of Greek culture at the University of Leeds' School of Languages, Cultures and Societies.
"He is a threat, maybe even a threat to his life. And it takes someone like Heracles to defend the world."
It's not just that Kerber is monstrous and terrifying, or that she keeps damned souls where they belong.
It is also a creature that is impossible to master.
Impossible for all but Heracles, the demigod of superhuman strength, also known as Hercules.
This is precisely what represents hope in ancient stories, and perhaps in ours as well.
When ordered to capture and bring Cerberus from the underworld, Heracles realized that he could not rely on strength alone to fight the monster.
"He doesn't just use brute force against him, he has to convince or charm the dog," says Stafford.
In other words, Heracles does not rely only on physical strength, thanks to which he won victories in other fights.
Now he has to use his mind - just as we can't fight climate change by relying only on the same strategies that got us to where we are, but, many experts say, we have to come up with a new way of fighting.
Comparing the mythological figures of Cerberus and Heracles and Hades with actual heat waves is not perfect. (Nor is it known if those who called them that wanted to send such a message).
To begin with, the ancient Greeks considered Hades to be a misty, gloomy and dark place, which is quite the opposite of the heat, fire and fire as it was later interpreted in the Christian tradition. (Some media reported that the heat wave was named after Kerber from the poem Hell (Inferno), from Divine comedies Dante Alighieri, in which there is certainly more fire than in ancient myths).
Coldness aside, there are still similarities between Hades and heat waves today.
Hades is a kind of nightmare as a picture and situation of our world today, a busy society that swallows and traps all dead souls.
"Lifeless shadows without bodies and bones wander around, some jostling in the market, some circling the court of the underground king, while the rest are absorbed in the trades they did in their old age, when they were alive," is part of Ovid's epic Metamorphoses.
Hades, in other words, is the ancient world turned "upside down" - very similar to most of the ominous predictions of our future with climate change, which, it seems increasingly likely, will happen without a drastic and immediate response.
It is predicted that our world will turn "upside down", in which not only heat waves, but also floods, droughts and environmental degradation will become common.
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For some unfortunate souls, Hades is also a place of eternal torment.
U House of the damned (a place described in the Metamorphosis), unfortunate souls are subjected to endless torture: Titius is crucified and his entrails are eaten by vultures.
Sisyphus pushes the boulder up the hill, but in vain, it keeps coming back.
From the point of view of our fight against climate change, the most tortured victim could be Ixion, the king who, because of the murder of his relative, was chained to a wheel of fire that revolved in a circle endlessly, while he was simultaneously running from himself and chasing himself.
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