Heracles fighting Cerberus in the Ledebour Garden / Herakles bojující s Kerberem v Ledebourské zahrade (Prague) - Epic Beings and Creatures on Waymarking.com

Depicted Baroque sculpture of Heracles fighting Cerberus (Greek mythology), key part of currently defunct fountain, decorates stairway in the lower part of Baroque Ledebour Garden (Ledebourská zahrada) below Prague Castle.

Ledebour Garden, one of six Baroque southern-oriented terrace gardens bellow Prague Castle, belongs among jewels of Baroque garden architecture and also among the most beautiful tourist sites in Czech capital. In the past a Renaissance palace terraced garden existed on the slope behind the Ledebour Palace. Most probably prior to 1710 Marie Karolína and Leopold Antonín Trautmannsdorf began to build a Baroque garden there. A three-part sala terrena appeared beside the palace. The decoration of the sala terrena 'a la Pompeii', is at least in a part work of painter V.V. Reiner. Opposite there is a coulisse wall with fountain (with statue of Hercules fighting Cerberos from the 1st quarter of the 18th century) and a staircase, which leads up to the terraced part of teh garden via polygonal pavilion. Between 1988-1995 it underwent extensive reconstruction.

Heracles, was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson (and half-brother) of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman Emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Central Mediterranean. Details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well.

Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among the characteristics commonly attributed to him. Heracles used his wits on several occasions when his strength did not suffice, such as when laboring for the king Augeas of Elis, wrestling the giant Antaeus, or tricking Atlas into taking the sky back onto his shoulders. Together with Hermes he was the patron and protector of gymnasia and palaestrae. His iconographic attributes are the lion skin and the club. These qualities did not prevent him from being regarded as a playful figure who used games to relax from his labors and played a great deal with children. By conquering dangerous archaic forces he is said to have "made the world safe for mankind" and to be its benefactor. Heracles was an extremely passionate and emotional individual, capable of doing both great deeds for his friends (such as wrestling with Thanatos on behalf of Prince Admetus, who had regaled Heracles with his hospitality, or restoring his friend Tyndareus to the throne of Sparta after he was overthrown) and being a terrible enemy who would wreak horrible vengeance on those who crossed him, as Augeas, Neleus and Laomedon all found out to their cost.

Cerberus in Greek and Roman mythology, is a multi-headed (usually three-headed) dog, or "hellhound" with a serpent's tail, a mane of snakes, and a lion's claws. He guards the entrance of the Greek underworld to prevent the dead from escaping and the living from entering. Cerberus is featured in many works of ancient Greek and Roman literature and in works of both ancient and modern art and architecture, although the depiction of Cerberus differs across various renditions. The most notable difference is the number of his heads: Most sources describe or depict three heads; others show Cerberus with two or even just one; a smaller number of sources show a variable number, sometimes as many as fifty or even a hundred.

[excerpted from Wikipedia]