Clash of the Titans Inspired Dog Names

Fans of the original 1981 Ray Harryhausen film may recall a certain two-headed wolf-like creature that gave our hero Perseus a really hard time during his journey. Dioskilos was its name and it had two heads to instill twice the dread within the hearts of its foes. Though the monster only appeared in the film for a short time, its wild appearance gave cinemagoers quite a shock when they saw this fiend stalk across the screen. Perseus had to defeat the creature in order to gain access to Medusa's lair, which he was thankfully able to do so due to his wit and will. 

Over the years, many comparisons have been made between two-headed Dioskilos and the three-headed hound of the Underworld - Cerberus. Listing all the similarities out loud, we can certainly see where folks are coming from; both hounds act as the hellish guard dogs of their respective master's domains, both creatures have multiple heads, and both monsters faced off against some of Greek mythology's most famous heroes (Perseus and Hercules respectively.) While it's only natural for a monstrous hound with any number of heads to be compared to what is perhaps the most famous beast in all of mythology, Dioskilos actually bears a resemblance to another, more obscure canine creature from Greek lore. 

Cerberus may be the three-headed guardian of the Underworld but it's actually Orthrus, the two-headed guardian of Geryon's cattle, that Dioskilos was based on. Orthrus has a very small role to play in the story of Hercules, around the time the famous Greek hero was completing his 12 (originally 10) Labors. During an altercation between Hercules and Geryon, Orthrus rushed the Greek hero to try and aid his monstrous master. Ultimately, Hercules laid waste to both Orthrus and Geryon, ending the demonic duo's reign of terror.

While Dioskilos didn't make an appearance in the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans, he did reappear as a foe in the video game adaption of the movie. There, Dioskilos was as terrifying as ever, serving as a major boss enemy that players needed to defeat using wit and skill, just as Perseus did in the 1980s. The Chimera that appeared in the film Wrath of the Titans is considered by some fans to be something of a living reference to Dioskilos, as the fire breathing creature also has two heads just like Medusa's great wolf.