The Labors of Hercules: The Cattle of Geryon
Long long ago, in the age before television, Hercules was feeling pretty good about himself. He had completed nine out of the ten tasks assigned to him and felt confident that he would complete the last one as well. Hera on the other hand was determined that Hercules not win the contest. She commanded Eurystheus to have Hercules bring back the cattle of Geryon. Geryon was a giant with 3 heads, 6 arms, and 6 legs and known to be a fierce warrior. Confident in his abilities Hercules headed to the port in order to sail to the island of Erytheia. When he got to the port he found that his friends who he had sailed with in the past had recently left on a journey of their own. He didn't know it but Hera had told them of a treasure located on the far side of the Mediterranean sea so that Hercules couldn't use their ship to travel to Erytheia. All of the other ships that remained were merchant vessels who wouldn't dare sail to Erytheia out of fear of Geryon. Not willing to wait around, Hercules walked around the entire Mediterranean sea to meet with his friends on the north coast of Africa. As he crossed the Libyan desert the heat and sun beat down heavily on him. A lesser man would have died of thirst but with his divine strength he was able to survive. However he got so frustrated and angry at the heat that he shot an arrow at the god Helios. Helios' chariot was the sun, and it was his duty to drive across the sky each day. Helios managed to dodge the arrow and was so impressed by Hercules' fearlessness in attacking a god that he let Hercules borrow the golden cup Helios used to sail from west to east every night. Helios told Hercules that he would need to return the cup to Helios in the desert so that Helios could continue to perform his duties. Hercules took the golden cup and used it to sail to the island of Erytheia. As soon as Hercules arrived on the shore he was almost immediately attacked by a giant two headed dog named Orthrus. Orthrus was Geryon's guard dog who protected the island. Compared to the monsters Hercules had already fought Orthrus wasn't much of a challenge to Hercules who quickly slew him with one bash of his club. Geryon's herdsman Eurytion then challenged Hercules but he too was no match. Then Geryon himself came out to fight Hercules. Hercules finally had a real fight on his hands. Although he was stronger then Geryon, he couldn't land a blow because Geryon was armed with three spears in three of his hands and three shields with his other three hands. Hercules only had his sword in one hand and his club in the other. Hercules would attack with both his weapons but Geryon could block with only two of his shields and still have arms to spare attacking. When Geryon attacked, Hercules blocked with his club, parried with his sword, but had nothing left to block Geryon's third spear. Hercules' lion skin armor helped but that didn't protect his whole body and while Geryon couldn't do much damage with each strike after awhile it began to add up. Realizing he couldn't win in a head on confrontation Hercules fell back and retreated to the river Anthemus where he hid himself. Geryon charged after Hercules, but Hercules had prepared an ambush and shot Geryon with one of his arrows that had been dipped in the Hydra's poison. Hercules hit Geryon in the head so forcefully that Geryon died immediately. Hercules then rounded up the cattle and sailed them back to the Libyan desert so that he could return the golden cup to Helios. He then herded the cattle all the way back to Greece to give them to Eurystheus. However Hera had been closely watching Hercules this time and she wasn't ready to give up without a fight, she had some dirty tricks up her sleeve to stop Hercules. As Hercules passed through the country she told a thief named Cacus about the cattle. He managed to sneak the cows away from Hercules during the night while he slept. Hercules went into the town to find the cattle but Cacus had hidden the carefully in a cave. However Cacus had a sister named Caca who fell in love with Hercules. She betrayed her brother and told Hercules where Cacus had hidden the herd. As Hercules neared Greece Hera sent a gadfly to bite all the cattle and scattered the entire herd. This was more effective as it took Hercules an entire year to round up all the cattle again but he finally did it. As he neared the court of Eurystheus with all the cattle Hera caused a flood to prevent Hercules from crossing the river with the herd. Hercules threw rocks into the river to make it shallow enough that the cattle could cross safely. Hercules drove the entire herd across the river and delivered them safely to Eurystheus. He then presented himself before the gods declaring he had completed all ten of the tasks given to him and proven himself worthy to live with the gods on Olympus as was agreed. However this wasn't the end of Hera's dirty tricks. As Hercules presented himself, Hera stepped forward and declared that two of the tasks didn't count. She said that while Hercules had cut off the heads of the Hydra, it was really his nephew Iolaus who had slain it because he had burned the neck to prevent the heads from regrowing. She also said that Hercules hadn't really cleaned the Augean stables since the river had done all the work. The gods and goddesses discussed this among themselves and eventually sided with Hera. They declared that Hercules had to perform two more tasks to make up for the ones that had been declared invalid. However they also judged that the other tasks had been done within the rules and were valid. A bit angry at this turn of events Hercules returned back to Eurystheus to perform his last two tasks.
Continued in The Apples of the Hesperides