“The dog is one of the most ancient animals belonging to the goddess as the guardian of her mysteries. In Greece dogs were sacred to Hecate, goddess of the dark phase of the moon and so of the crossroads and the underworld. The culture of Old Europe reveals the very ancient origin of the link between dog, dark moon, black night and goddess. The finest matierials—marble, rock-crystal and gold—were used to fashion dog figurines or vessels shaped as dogs. . . .

In later civilizations the dog guards the threshold between the realms of the living and the dead: in Egypt, the jackal god, Anubis, becomes the guide of the souls of the dead into the underworld and assists at their transformation; in Greece, the three-headed god, Cerberus, guards the entrance to the realm of the dead.”

—Anne Baring and Jules Cashford, from The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image, 2005.