Mea Culpa: What an infernal reference, 2,000 years too late

Questions of language and style in last week’s Independent, reviewed by John Rentoul

Hercules was getting to grips with Cerberus long before a certain Italian poet raised literary hell (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

In an article about the European heatwave, we said: “The area of high pressure is named Cerberus after the underworld monster from Dante’s Inferno.” Hold on a moment. We might as well say that it is named after the three-headed dog in Harry Potter. The original Cerberus was the many-headed dog that prevented the inmates from leaving Hades in Greek myth.

It is true that Dante also described Cerberus guarding the gluttons in the third circle of hell, but why we should refer to that version from the 14th century rather than to the original about 2,000 years earlier is a mystery. Thanks to John Harrison for sharing his puzzlement.

Full of regret: Language changes, and it is now pedantic to insist that “hopefully” should refer to someone who is full of hope, as in “he looked at her hopefully”, rather than to mean “I hope that”, as in “hopefully, we will meet again”. But pedantry is good, and raises the tone.