The Golden Bough (mythology) Aeneas tore off the bough, a second golden one immediately sprang up, which was a good omen, as the sibyl had said that if this did not happen the coming endeavor would fail. Soon after they started their descent into the Underworld, the Sibyl showed the golden bough to Charon who only then allowed them to enter his boat and cross the Stygian river. On the other side, she cast a drugged cake to the three-headed watchdog Cerberus, who swallowed it and fell asleep. Once in the Underworld, Aeneas tried talking to some shades, and listened to the Sibyl speak
Gate deities of the underworld only to the souls capable of pronouncing the secret name of the god himself, as a sort of "password". The walls of many Pharaonic tombs in the Valley of the Kings are decorated with the texts of the Book of Gates, which describes the twelve gates or pylons of the underworld: in spite of being imagined as architectural barriers to all intents and purposes, the gates were individually named as goddesses. Chapter 144 of the Book of the Dead mentions seven gates, each with its own God, a Doorkeeper and a Herald: for example, the 7th gate is guarded by