The Fifth Head of Cerberus and Mr. Million, adding that its "unseen" heads are his brother David as fourth and, by implication, the fifth and final the narrator's own. Following this logic, the title of the novella therefore refers to the narrator himself, whose story we read. Further parallels between the narrator's family and the mythology of Cerberus can be drawn in numerous other ways throughout this novella. For example, a statue of this mythological creature exists at the front, or "gates" of their family home, which is itself located at 666 Saltimbanque, this number having associations with the underworld dating back to the Greek
Rebellion of the Three Guards restoration of the Shang dynasty. Nevertheless, such uprisings remained local and weak, so that Shang loyalism never again posed a serious threat to the Zhou dynasty. As the Duke of Zhou was later "revered as paragon of wisdom and humility" and respected as "great example" by Confucius, the revolt against his regency was consequently vilified. The Three Guards were considered as "evil men of old", over whom Duke Dan's virtue had triumphed. This interpretation dominated moralistic renditions of the civil war for centuries. Despite the generally negative view towards the rebels, there have been scholars who attempted a reassessment of