Geryon was a monstrous three-bodied giant who dwelt on the far western island of Erytheia, the owner of a magnificent herd of red cattle — the target of the tenth Labour of Heracles, who had to journey to the very edge of the world to slay him and drive his cattle back to Greece. He was reckoned among the strongest of all beings, and his defeat marked one of the hero's farthest and most dangerous adventures.
The Three-Bodied Giant
Geryon was a grandson of the Gorgon Medusa, born of the union of Medusa's son Chrysaor (who sprang from her severed neck) and the Oceanid Callirhoe — monstrous on both sides of his descent. He was described as having three bodies joined at the waist, with three heads, six arms and (in some accounts) wings — a fearsome triple warrior who could fight as three men at once. He lived on Erytheia, a red island far in the western Ocean (associated with the sunset and the lands beyond Spain), where he kept a famous herd of red cattle, guarded by the herdsman Eurytion and the two-headed dog Orthrus, brother of Cerberus.
The Tenth Labour
King Eurystheus commanded Heracles to fetch the cattle of Geryon — a labour that required the hero to travel to the western edge of the known world. On the way he set up the famous Pillars of Heracles (the Strait of Gibraltar) to mark the limits of his journey, and the heat of the sun grew so fierce that he drew his bow on the sun-god Helios himself — who, admiring his daring, lent Heracles the golden cup in which the Sun sailed the Ocean each night, and in it the hero crossed to Erytheia. There he slew the dog Orthrus and the herdsman Eurytion with his club, and when Geryon came against him in his triple-bodied fury, Heracles loosed a single mighty arrow (poisoned with the Hydra's venom) that pierced through all three bodies and felled the giant at once.
The Long Drive Home
Heracles then loaded the red cattle into the golden cup of the Sun, returned it to Helios, and drove the herd all the long way back across Europe to Greece, a journey filled with further adventures and the founding of many local legends along the route. The cattle of Geryon, won at the edge of the world, were among the most hard-earned of all his prizes.
The Monster at the World's Edge
Geryon endures as one of the great monsters of the Heraclean cycle — the three-bodied giant of the far west, guardian of a fabulous herd at the boundary of the known world. He embodies the Greek sense of the edges of the earth as a place of wonders and monsters, and the heroic ideal of the champion who ventures even to the sunset itself and returns victorious.
At the western edge of the world, where the Sun sets into the Ocean, a giant with three bodies guarded his red cattle — until a single arrow passed through all three.