a sop to Cerberus



a sop to Cerberus

A bribe. Taken from the ancient Greek and Roman custom of leaving gifts with corpses so that Cerberus (guardian of the gates of hell) would pass them by. What is this money, a sop to Cerberus so that I won't tell the authorities what you've done?
See also: sop

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Rahman-Arabic, Persian, Indonesian, Malay
ShirleeSHUR-leeEnglish
AdlaiAD-lay (English), AD-lie (English)Biblical, Biblical Hebrew
Baila-Yiddish
ŠImona-Czech
Arie (2)ahr-YEHebrew