Tenth Labour (Cattle of Geryon)

For the tenth labour, Heracles was required to fetch the cattle of Geryon. Geryon (Γηρυονεύς) was the king of Erytheia (Cadiz), in Spain.

The cattle were guarded by Geryon's herdsman and the two-headed hound called Orthus (Ὄρθρος).

The journey was uneventful, until Heracles reached the Straits of Gibraltar. Heracles began piling rocks on the European side and African sides of the straits. The erection of these rocks became known as the Pillars of Hercules.

The work was long and hard, so Heracles became overheated from the sun. Heracles pointed his arrow at the sun, threatening to shoot the sun. Helius, the god of the sun, was far from offended by the impetuous hero. In fact, Helius so admired the hero's boldness that the sun-god gave Heracles a Sun-cup made of gold. This gold cup was large enough for Heracles to sail past the Pillars of Hercules and into the Atlantic Ocean.

(According to Diodorus Siculus, the hero Heracles completely destroyed a race of woman warriors called the Gorgons (similar to the Amazons), in Libya. His great grandfather Perseus had earlier defeated the Gorgons and killed their queen, Medusa.)

Arriving at Erytheia, Heracles had to kill the herdsman Eurytion and the two-headed hound Orthus with his club, near the peak of Mount Abas. Menoetes, the herdsman of Hades, witnessed all of this, and went to Geryon with news of Heracles raiding his cattle. Geryon, who had three heads, was also killed when he pursued the hero to the River Anthemus. Heracles then tried to make his way home.

Passing through Abderia, to the south of Spain, Heracles then entered the land of the Ligurians. Near Massalia (modern Marseille), Ialebion and Dercynus, the sons of Poseidon, who wanted to steal the cattle, attacked him. Heracles killed them, but he was wounded, fighting the Ligurian army. Zeus sent a shower of stone, which Heracles used to pelt his enemies.

The giant Cacus also stole some of the cattle in Italy. Heracles had to leave the rest of the cattle behind, to search for the missing cattle and to kill Cacus.

At Rhegion, one of his bulls left the other cattle, and jumped and swam across the Strait of Messina. Heracles asked the locals if they had seen the missing bull, and they told him where it had gone off to. The locals referred to the bull as italus, so Heracles called the entire Italian peninsula, Italy. The missing bull was the finest of the stock, so Heracles left the rest of cattle behind to fetch the one in Sicily.

When he found the bull, he found it among the herd of a notorious boxer named Eryx (Ἔρυξ), in Eryx, Sicily. According to Apollonius Rhodius, Eryx was a son of the Argonaut Butes and Aphrodite, or according to Apollodorus, a son of Poseidon. Eyrx had the habit of challenging a traveller to a boxing match in which he would kill his opponent. Eryx would only agree to return the bull to the hero if Heracles could defeat him in a boxing match. Eryx, however, was no match for Heracles, and was killed during their bout.

Heracles recovered his bull and returned to the other cattle. New problems arose upon reaching Greece. Hera sent gadflies that stung the cattle, dispersing them out in all directions, but most of the cattle fled to the Thracian mountains. Heracles was forced to pursue them, and managed to recover some of the cattle. Those left behind became wild. He brought the rest to Eurystheus, who offered them in sacrifice to Hera.

There was another person who stole and hid the cattle from Heracles. According to a 1st century BC Greek poet, Parthenius, the Celts were descendants of Heracles.

As Heracles travelled back to Greece with the cattle of Geryon, Celtine, daughter of Bretannus, saw and fell in love with the hero. One day, she hid the cattle, and would not tell Heracles their whereabouts until he made love to her. Heracles slept with her, and Celtine became the mother of Celtus, ancestor of the Celts.

Diodorus Siculus also recorded the same myth about the origin of the Celts, except that Diodorus didn't give a name to the maiden whom Heracles slept with. The only description we were given was that she was from Alesia, and her son was named Galates or Gaul. Greek and Roman authors frequently interchanged the Celts with Gauls and Galatae.