Geryon

Geryon is a figure in Greek mythology known as a colossal, multi-bodied king who ruled the remote western island of Erytheia. In most traditions he is described as a three-bodied giant, sometimes imagined with three torsos sharing a single mind.

Geryon is most famous for keeping a herd of cattle that belonged to Helios, the sun god. As one of Heracles’ Twelve Labors, Heracles was tasked with obtaining these cattle. He sailed to the edge of the world, defeated Geryon, and drove the cattle back to Greece, thereby completing the labor. In some variants, Geryon is slain by Heracles with a poisoned arrow, while other versions attribute his death to a club or spear.

The myth of Geryon appears in a range of ancient sources, including Hesiod’s Theogony, Apollodorus’s Library, and Diodorus Siculus, with later Roman retellings such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses drawing on Greek traditions. The tale has been represented in various works of art and literature, often emphasizing the extremity of the western frontier and the hero’s conquest of a monstrous obstacle.

Legacy and interpretation: Geryon’s three-bodied form has made him a distinctive emblem of distant, exotic geography in ancient myth. The episode with the cattle of the sun situates him within the broader framework of Heracles’ adventures and the heroic quest to reclaim divine wealth. In medieval and modern adaptations, the character is sometimes alluded to as a symbol of formidable, otherworldly strength.