Geryon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Greek mythology, Geryon (Geryones, Geyron), son of Chrysaor and Callirhoe, was a fearsome titan who dwelt on the island Erytheia of the mythic Hesperides in the far west of the Mediterranean. A more literal-minded later generation of Greeks associated the region with Tartessos, in the province of Cadiz (Greek Gades) in southern Spain.^[1] Geryon had three heads and three bodies with a total of six arms. Some accounts state that he had six legs as well while others state that the three bodies were joined to one pair of legs. Only a papyrus fragment of Stesichorus' epic poem, Geryoneïs, portrays Geryon with wings.^[2]Apart from these weird features, his appearance was that of a warrior. He owned a two-headed hound named Orthrus, which was the brother of Cerberus, and a herd of magnificent red cattle that were guarded by Orthrus, and a herder Eurytion, son of Erytheia,^[3].

Contents 1 The Tenth Labour of Heracles 2 Stesichorus' Geryoneïs 3 Asterisms 4 Chthonic associations 5 Modern appearances 6 Notes 6.1 Further reading

[edit] The Tenth Labour of Heracles

In the fullest account in the Bibliotheke of Pseudo-Apollodorus (2.5.10) Heracles was required to travel to Erytheia, in order to obtain the Cattle of Geryon as his tenth labour. On the way there, he crossed the Libyan desert^[4] and became so frustrated at the heat that he shot an arrow at Helios, the Sun. Helios "in admiration of his courage" gave Heracles the golden cup he used to sail across the sea from west to east each night. Heracles used it to reach Erytheia, a favorite motif of the vase-painters. Such a magical conveyance undercuts any literal geography for Erytheia, the "red island" of the sunset.

When Heracles reached Erytheia, no sooner had he landed than he was confronted by the two-headed dog, Orthrus. With one huge blow from his olive-wood club, Heracles killed the watchdog. Eurytion the herdsman came to assist Orthrus, but Heracles dealt with him the same way.

On hearing the commotion, Geryon sprang into action, carrying three shields, three spears, and wearing three helmets. He pursued Heracles at the River Anthemus but fell a victim to an arrow that had been dipped in the venomous blood of the Lernaean Hydra, shot so forcefully by Heracles that it pierced Geryon's forehead, "and Geryon bent his neck over to one side, like a poppy that spoils its delicate shapes, sheddings its petals all at once"^[5] With a shrill, despairing groan, Geryon swayed, then fell, nevermore to rise. In some versions, Heracles tore Geryon's bodies into three separate pieces.

Heracles then had to herd the cattle back to Eurystheus. In Roman versions of the narrative, on the Aventine hill in Italy, Cacus stole some of the cattle as Heracles slept, making the cattle walk backwards so that they left no trail, a repetition of the trick of the young Hermes. According to some versions, Heracles drove his remaining cattle past a cave, where Cacus had hidden the stolen animals, and they began calling out to each other. In others, Caca, Cacus' sister, told Heracles where he was. Heracles then killed Cacus, and according to the Romans, founded an altar where the Forum Boarium, the cattle market, was later held.

To annoy Heracles, Hera sent a gadfly to bite the cattle, irritate them and scatter them. The hero was within a year able to retrieve them. Hera then sent a flood which raised the level of a river so much, Heracles could not cross with the cattle. He piled stones into the river to make the water shallower. Heracles then had to kill (or by some accounts, mate with) a monster that was half-woman and half-serpent. When he finally reached the court of Eurystheus, the cattle were sacrificed to Hera.

[edit] Stesichorus' Geryoneïs

The poet Stesichorus wrote a song of Geryon (Geryoneïs) in the sixth century BC, which was apparently the source of this section in Bibliotheke; it contains the first reference to Tartessus. From the fragmentary papyri found at Oxyrhyncus^[6] it appears that Stesichorus inserted a character, Menoites, who reported the theft of the cattle to Geryon. Geryon then had an interview with his mother Calirrhoa, who begged him not to confront Heracles. They appear to have expressed some doubt as to whether Geryon would prove to be immortal. The gods met in council, where Athena warned Poseidon that she would protect Heracles against Poseidon's grandson Geryon. Denys Page observes that the increase in representation of the Geryon episode in vase-paintings increased from the mid-sixth century and suggestes that Stesichorus' Geryoneïs provided the impetus.

The fragments are sufficient to show that the poem was composed in twenty-six line triads, of strophe, antistrophe and epode, repeated in columns along the original scroll, facts that aided Page in placing many of the fragments, sometimes of no more than a word, in their proper positions.

[edit] Asterisms

When the sun reaches the constellation of Gemini, it meets the constellation of Auriga. Many ancient beliefs associated the daily path of the sun across the sky with the sun god using a fiery chariot, and so, here, the sun's yearly path (its transit) obtains the fiery chariot (Auriga) of the sun's daily path. Later Greek mythology considered the sun to use a cup to traverse the sky.

Also in this region of the sky is a vast space without easily visible stars (now occupied by the modern constellations of Lynx, and by Camelopardalis), which the ancient Greeks described as a desert^{[citation needed]}. A story based on this region of the sky therefore requires a vast desert, the best know of which to the ancient Greeks was that of Libya. However, even though the deserted area is past much of the constellations, in this region of the sky, setting a story in the desert requires someone to travel through it to the main location. Since Auriga is the nearest constellation from the start of the sun's transit to border on the empty space, a solar-chariot (later adjusted into a cup) becomes the method of traversing the desert.

The milky way was so named by the ancient Greeks because it appears to be a smear of milk across the sky. Some, however, were able to discern some individual stars in the sky, and as such, it became to them a vast herd of cattle, whose milk filled the gaps between them. The star Capella, which is part of Auriga, was known to the Greeks as the Shepherd's star (as some groups considered Auriga to be a shepherd driving a chariot, as well as the chariot, whilst keeping a goat slung over its left shoulder). Capella is very close to, but just outside, the Milky Way, and as such, considered a shepherd, appears to be herding it.

In Gemini, the constellation Canis Major (the great dog), sits close to the milky way. The head of the constellation faces away from the sun. However, at the other end of the constellation (where the tail should be) sits the star Sirius, considered evil by many ancient mythologies due to its flickering and redness, which was itself considered a dog (the dog star), by association with the constellation. As such, the constellation has two heads, one is the normal head of the constellation, and the other is Sirius on the other side.

Nearer to the sun than Canis Major, and also appearing to guard the milky way in this area of the sun's transit as well as Canis Major and Capella, is Orion the giant. Traditionally Orion is considered a single giant, but it also equally possible to differentiate it into three separate whole bodies joined at the belt, as Geryon is described, particularly as the legs appear in quite distinct direction, and alternative drawings (taking into account slightly fainter stars than basic diagrams) of the constellation normally depict three rather than two arms, the third and second sharing the same right shoulder.

The sun manages to pass these obstacles, passing through the Milky Way. Auriga appears to be parked in the Milky Way itself, and as such some of the cows of the milky way herd are in it. After the Milky Way, the sun meets Gemini itself. Depictions of Gemini vary as to whether it leans east or west, in the westerly direction it is possible to draw the constellation as two stick man, and Gemini's feet rest in the Milky Way. In the easterly depictions, one of the twins is in the milky way, and the other is outside it, and as such, one twin has stolen some cows, and the other, the one whom the sun's transit crosses, has not. In the myth of Castor and Pollux (the usual names of the twins in Gemini), their deaths are due to an argument over the theft of cattle.

Below Gemini, lies the constellation Hydra (the Greeks not acknowledging the existence of Canis Minor, for which Crater acts as a partial head.

[edit] Chthonic associations

Geryon is sometimes identified as a chthonic death-demon, mainly because of the association with the extreme western direction. In Dante's Divine Comedy Geryon has become a winged beast with the tail of a scorpion but the face of an honest man. He dwells at the cliff between the seventh and eighth circles of Hell (the circles of violence and fraud, respectively).

[edit] Modern appearances

Geryon appeared in the 1st edition Monster Manual for the Dungeons & Dragons game. In that book, he appeared as the fifth lord of the Nine Hells, possessing a human face and torso, a serpent's tail with stinger, animal paws, and a large horn. Later editions have seen Geryon cast out of his leadership role in favor of Levistus.

Geryon appears in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman (DC Comics Modern Age) lurking in a tree of golden apples.

Geryon appears in the video game Devil May Cry 3 as a boss character. In this adaptation Geryon is represented as a massive demonic Horse pulling a stage coach from which it fires projectiles. Geryon also has the ability to slow time and upon defeating Geryon the player received the Quicksilver fighting style which grants the player that same ability. It is also possible that Geryon is meant to be the body inside the coach.

Geryon and Herakles are modern gay lovers in Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red, a novel in verse published in 1999. In the novel, which takes place on a volcanic island and later in Argentina and Peru, Herakles is mostly immune to Geryon's attentions and, metaphorically speaking, slays his heart rather than Geryon himself.

Geryon appeared in the MMORPG Dark Age Of Camelot as a boss enemy for the level 40 Champion Quest.

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further reading

• M. M. Davies, “Stesichoros' Geryoneis and its folk-tale origins”. Classical quarterly NS 38, 1988, 277-290.
• Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red. New York: Vintage Books, 1998. A modern retelling of Stesichoros' fragments.