Geryon

Geryon was a monstrous giant of Greek mythology, the owner of a herd of red cattle on the western island of Erytheia. Hesiod calls him the strongest of mortals and gives him three heads; other poets give him three bodies. Heracles killed him as part of the tenth of his Labours, which was to bring Geryon’s cattle back to Eurystheus.

Family

Geryon was the son of Chrysaor and Callirhoe, a daughter of Oceanus (Hesiod, Theogony 287–288 and 979–981; Apollodorus, Library 2.5.10). Chrysaor was the brother of the winged horse Pegasus; both sprang from the body of Medusa when Perseus cut off her head (Hesiod, Theogony 280–283). Geryon’s dog was Orthus (also called Orthrus), the first child of Echidna, followed by Cerberus and the Hydra (Theogony 309–315). Apollodorus says that Orthus, the two-headed hound, was begotten by Typhon on Echidna (Library 2.5.10). Pausanias calls a woman Erytheia the daughter of Geryon, and the mother, by Hermes, of Norax, who founded Nora in Sardinia (Description of Greece 10.17.5).

Appearance

The sources disagree about his shape. Hesiod calls him three-headed (trikephalos, Theogony 287). Aeschylus calls him three-bodied (trisomatos) in the Agamemnon, where a man who had died as often as the rumours said would be “a second Geryon” (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 869–872). Apollodorus says he had the body of three men grown together and joined in one at the waist, but parted in three from the flanks and thighs (Library 2.5.10). Pausanias saw the same picture on the Chest of Cypselus at Olympia: Heracles fighting Geryon, who is shown as three men joined to one another (Description of Greece 5.19.1).

Erytheia

Hesiod places Geryon’s cattle on sea-girt Erytheia, across the stream of Oceanus (Theogony 290–294). Herodotus says that Geryon lived far west of the Black Sea, in the island the Greeks call Erytheia, on the shore of Ocean near Gadira and outside the Pillars of Heracles (Histories 4.8). Apollodorus says that Erytheia was an island near the ocean, which was in his day called Gadira (Library 2.5.10), and Strabo reports that Pherecydes gave Gades the name Erytheia, while others identified it with the island lying across a narrow strait near that city (Geography 3.5.4). Diodorus, who rationalizes the story, makes Chrysaor a king of all Iberia, with three warlike sons, and the cattle pasture in the parts of Iberia that slope toward the ocean (Library of History 4.17.1–2). Pausanias knew a different tradition: in his time the people of the Lydian city of the Doors of Temenus took some large bones for Geryon’s corpse, but he insisted that Geryon belonged at Gadeira (Description of Greece 1.35.7–8).

The Tenth Labour of Heracles

Eurystheus ordered Heracles to fetch the cattle of Geryon from Erytheia (Library 2.5.10). Geryon owned red cattle. Eurytion was the herdsman and the two-headed hound Orthus kept watch. On his way, Heracles travelled through Europe and Libya and set up two pillars facing each other as markers of his journey, at the boundary of the two continents. Apollodorus says that, scorched by the Sun on this journey, he bent his bow at the god. The Sun admired his boldness and gave him a golden goblet, in which Heracles crossed the Ocean.

On reaching Erytheia, Heracles lodged on Mount Abas. The dog rushed at him, and he struck it with his club. Eurytion came to help the dog, and Heracles killed him as well. Menoetes, who was pasturing the cattle of Hades there, reported what had happened to Geryon (Library 2.5.10).

The Death of Geryon

Hesiod says that Heracles killed Geryon beside his shambling cattle in sea-girt Erytheia, on the day he drove off the broad-browed cattle to holy Tiryns, after crossing the stream of Oceanus and killing Orthus and the herdsman Eurytion in the misty stead beyond the Ocean (Theogony 289–294). In Apollodorus, Geryon came up with Heracles beside the river Anthemus as he was driving the cattle away, joined battle with him, and was shot dead. Heracles then put the cattle into the goblet, sailed to Tartessus, and gave the goblet back to the Sun (Library 2.5.10). Virgil also names this deed: Evander tells Aeneas that the great avenger Alcides came to the site of Rome, proud of the killing of triple-bodied Geryon and of his spoils, driving his huge bulls (Aeneid 8.201–204).

The Return of the Cattle

The journey home was long. According to Apollodorus, Heracles passed through Abderia, Liguria, and Tyrrhenia. At Rhegium a bull broke away and swam across to Sicily, where Eryx, the son of Poseidon, kept it among his own herds; Heracles wrestled Eryx and killed him. At the Ionian Sea Hera sent a gadfly that scattered the cows into the mountains of Thrace; Heracles caught some of them and drove them to the Hellespont, while the rest ran wild ever after; he then brought the cattle to Eurystheus, who sacrificed them to Hera (Library 2.5.10). Pausanias says that Eurystheus chose this task because of the reputation of the Iberian cattle (Description of Greece 4.36.3).

Geryon Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 280–294, 309–315, and 979–983; Aeschylus, Agamemnon 869–872; Herodotus, Histories 4.8; Apollodorus, Library 2.5.10; Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4.17; Strabo, Geography 3.5.4; Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.35.7–8, 4.36.3, 5.19.1, and 10.17.5; Virgil, Aeneid 8.201–204.

See Also: Eurystheus, Heracles, Labours of Heracles, Orthrus, Chrysaor, Helios, Cerberus, Echidna