Labor 10: Geryon's Cattle

The Cattle of Geryon

To accomplish his tenth labor, Hercules had to
journey to the end of the world. Eurystheus ordered
the hero to bring him the cattle of the monster Geryon.
Geryon was the son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe.
Chrysaor had sprung from the body of the Gorgon
Medusa after Perseus beheaded her, and Callirrhoe
was the daughter of two Titans, Oceanus and Tethys.
With such distinguished lineage, it is no surprise that
Geryon himself was quite unique. It seems that
Geryon had three heads and three sets of legs all
joined at the waist.

Geryon lived on an island called Erythia, which was
near the boundary of Europe and Libya. On this
island, Geryon kept a herd of red cattle guarded by
Cerberus's brother, Orthus, a two-headed hound, and
the herdsman Eurytion. Hercules set off on for
Erythia, encountering and promptly killing many wild
beasts along the way, and he came to the place where
Libya met Europe. Here, Apollodorus tells us,
Hercules built two massive mountains, one in Europe
and one in Libya, to commemorate his extensive
journey. Other accounts say that Hercules split one
mountain into two. Either way, these mountains
became known as the Gates or Pillars of Hercules.
The strait Hercules made when he broke the mountain
apart is now called the Strait of Gibraltar, between
Spain and Morocco, the gateway from the
Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.

Sailing in a goblet which the Sun gave him in
admiration, Hercules reached the island of Erythia.
Not long after he arrived, Orthus, the two-headed dog,
attacked Hercules, so Hercules bashed him with his
club. Eurytion followed, with the same result. Another
herdsman in the area reported these events to Geryon.
Just as Hercules was escaping with the cattle, Geryon
attacked him. Hercules fought with him and shot him
dead with his arrows

The stealing of the cattle was not such a difficult task,
compared to the trouble Hercules had bringing the
herd back to Greece. In Liguria, two sons of
Poseidon, the god of the sea, tried to steal the cattle,
so he killed them. At Rhegium, a bull got loose and
jumped into the sea. The bull swam to Sicily and then
made its way to the neighboring country. The native
word for bull was "italus," and so the country came to
be named after the bull, and was called Italy.

The escaped bull was found by a ruler named Eryx,
another of Poseidon's sons, and Eryx put this bull into
his own herd. Meanwhile, Hercules was searching for
the runaway animal. He temporarily entrusted the rest
of the herd to the god Hephaestus, and went after the
bull. He found it in Eryx's herd, but the king would
return it only if the hero could beat him in a wrestling
contest. Never one to shy away from competition,
Hercules beat Eryx three times in wrestling, killed the
king, took back the bull, and returned it to the herd.

Hercules made it to the edge of the Ionian Sea, with
the end of his journey finally in sight. Hera, however,
was not about to let the hero accomplish this labor.
She sent a gadfly to attack the cattle, and the herd
scattered far and wide. Now, Hercules had to run
around Thrace gathering the escaped cows. Finally,
he regrouped the herd and, blaming his troubles on the
river Strymon in Thrace, he filled the river with
rocks, making it unnavigable. Then, he brought the
cattle of Geryon to Eurystheus, who sacrificed the
herd to Hera.