|
|
Immortal Journey
The Tales of Heracles, Leo, Cancer,
Sagittarius, Centaurus, Draco, Sagitta and Cerberus
Chapter 11: The Cattle of Geryon
"Your tenth labor is to drive the cattle
of Geryon from Erytheia, in the far west, all the way to Greece.
Eurystheus says that you are now ready to confront and conquer death
itself. You will know death's forces whenever you see them for they
were all born to the same parents, Typhon and Echidna. Typhon was
the last Titan son of Earth and Tartarus and he has a hundred dragon
heads with a hundred terrifying voices. Echidna is the half-woman,
half-serpent daughter of Chrysaor and Oceanus' daughter Calirrhoe.
Each of their children is different from the next, but each is horrible,
and they say that we all confront them as we descend into the land
of death.
"Echidna's brother, Geryon, lives on the island of Erytheia. He
has the bodies of three men, joined at the belly but with six legs
below. Geryon owns a herd of crimson colored cattle. Eurytion herds
them and they are protected by Orthus, a hound with two heads who
was also born to Echidna and Typhon. Your task is to overcome Orthus
and bring the cattle here." The herald watched as Heracles left
on his next journey.
Heracles passed through Europe, killing wild animals along the way
and finally he reached the strait where Ocean blew his saltwater
into the Mediterranean Sea. Only a short distance away lay Africa.
"Something grand should mark this point," he said. He spied two
high columns of rock and carried one to each side of the strait,
planting one in Europe and the other in Africa, and the pillars
stood like tall, silent sentries, guarding the gate to the sacred
entrance to civilization. "I will call them the Pillars of Heracles,"
he said. He was pleased with his work and he rested where he could
look at them through the heat of high noon.
In the late afternoon he continued on his journey, but the heat
did not subside and the sun glared down upon him with no clouds
or breezes to bring relief. Sweat dripped across his forehead and
into his eyes. "I can't stand this heat any longer," Heracles screamed
at the sun as he grabbed his bow. Taking aim, he shot arrows into
the sun, pinning it against the sky to stretch it so the heat would
be spread far and would not be so intense where Heracles stood.
"What are you doing?" Helius cried. "No one has ever dared to shoot
at me before."
"I apologize, Helios," Heracles said as he unstrung his bow to show
he wouldn't do it again. "I was being driven mad by the heat."
"Poor man," Helios said, "I offer you my water lily-shaped golden
goblet to use as a boat. It will be cooler if you are on the sea."
As Helios spoke, he sent a breeze which blew the whirling goblet
across the water and it floated onto shore. Then, as soon as Heracles
had climbed aboard and hung his lion skin as a sail, Helius blew
cool winds toward the vessel and it carried him away.
The winds blew him all the way to the shore of Erytheia, and Heracles
tied up his boat and disembarked. Mount Abas was high and desolate.
He heard no birds sing as he climbed the mountain, only the wind
whistled eerily through empty caves. "It's odd," Heracles thought
as a chill went up his spine, "I haven't seen any animals here,
not even any footprints. It's as if the mountain were dead and inhabited
only by evil spirits." The sun had almost set by the time he reached
the peak and the icy winds stung his face and hands as he set up
his night camp. Heracles built a fire, not only to warm himself,
but also for company, as he had never felt so alone. He wrapped
himself tightly in his lionskin and watched the fire until its dancing
light lulled him to sleep.
He was awakened in the middle of the night by the harrowing baying
of a hound. Only a few remaining embers glowed from his fire. "I
had better collect more wood," he thought. "I need the protection
of a fire in this forsaken land." As he returned with logs and kindling
under one arm, he felt unusually cautious. Peering at his campsite
from behind a bush, the dim light of a waning moon displayed the
shadow of a huge two-headed creature, pawing and loudly sniffing
at his gear. Then the creature raised its heads to the moon and
began to bay again, making Heracles' spine tingle. "This must be
Orthus, the hound that protects Geryon's cattle," Heracles thought,
and then he realized that the only weapon he had with him was his
club. The rest of his weapons lay uselessly by the fire. He crouched,
gently placing the wood on the ground to avoid making a sound, then
he circled the fire until he was downwind of the creature.
He waited until Orthus turned away and sniffed the air, then he
cautiously and silently approached him, raising his club high and
aiming above the animal's heads. Just as he was about to strike,
Orthus suddenly turned and lunged at him, grabbing his wrist with
one mouth while the fangs of the other were only inches from his
throat. Heracles ground his teeth in pain as the hound held his
wrist in his teeth, but he brought his club down with a crack on
the creature's free and menacing head, splitting the skull. The
other head shook and as it growled, Heracles grabbed his injured
arm free, holding it tightly to him as he raised his club again
and, with all the strength he could summon, brought it down between
the hound's eyes. With a final yelp the hound was dead.
Heracles quickly rinsed and wrapped his wound, but he could hear
branches snapping and leaves rustling. Holding tightly to his club,
he hid behind a bush across the clearing from the stranger's approach.
Seconds later, a man appeared carrying a spear. As he spied Orthus'
body by the fire, the man straightened his back, narrowed his eyes
to slits and, holding tightly to his now outstretched spear, his
gaze inched its way across the surrounding thickets. "That must
be Eurytion, the cowherd," Heracles thought, waiting for the best
moment to attack. When Eurytion's back was to him, Heracles leaped
out of his hiding place, still clutching his club and jarring the
spear out of Eurytion's hand as he knocked him to the ground. The
two wrestled, rolling over and over through the embers in their
struggle. Finally, when he was on top, Heracles stuck out his knee
to stop the turning and he raised his club, bringing it down hard
on Eurytion's skull. As he got up and brushed the ashes and pebbles
from his skin, he stared at the bodies that lay before him. "I guess
that's the end of my sleep," he thought. "I'll have to finish my
job before they're missed." He dragged the bodies until they lay
neatly side-by-side by the dead embers, then he gathered up his
gear and left to find the cattle.
Finding the cattle was not easy in the dark, especially since the
terrain was unfamiliar, but at sunrise he spied the hoofprints and
followed them until their lowing echoed along the river. Herding
them together, he chased them down the river and toward shore where
his boat was tied.
It would have been an uneventful escape if it had not been for an
unlucky coincidence. Menoetes, the cowherd of Hell, had decided
to take Hades' cattle to a field in the sunlight that day. He rarely
did this, but on that day, as soon as the cattle arrived in the
field, he spied a giant stealing Geryon's herd. Leaving his own
herd, he raced to Geryon's palace. "Your cattle are being stolen
by a giant," he reported. "He's driving them along the banks of
the Anthemus river and I think they are heading to the sea."
It took little time for Geryon to put on his armor, grab his weapons
and race toward the river on his horse. The herd had almost reached
shore when he spied them. He hurled a spear and it landed at Heracles'
feet. "I will kill you, rustler," Geryon shouted.
Heracles stopped and calmly turned toward his assailant as he grabbed
an arrow and loaded his bow. "You, alone, will kill me?" he said
gruffly. "I don't think so." He took aim and shot the arrow straight
into Geryon's heart. Heracles watched his victim fall off his horse
and land face down in the mud along the riverbank, then he picked
up a stick and, hitting the hindlegs of the cattle, he got them
moving again toward the sea.
It took some patience for Heracles to load the cattle into his waiting
vessel. He couldn't tell if the cattle were contrary or just terribly
stupid, for when he lowered one of the petals like a gangplank,
each cow jumped over the plank and fell on its knees in the water
before running back to shore. "How can they all do the same thing?"
he thought in disgust. "Blindfolding the bull worked well enough
before," he thought. "I'll just blindfold each of these cows and
lead them aboard one at a time." The procedure took a long time,
but it did work and finally he and the cattle sailed across a calm
sea to Tartessus where Heracles unloaded the cattle to finish his
journey overland and returned the borrowed golden goblet to Helius.
The journey overland had far more problems than had his trip by
sea. When he reached Ligystine, in the territory of Abderia, he
was ambushed by two men named Ialebion and Dercynus, who were sons
of Poseidon. "Give us those cattle and we will let you live," they
said to Heracles.
"Go away and I'll let you live," he responded.
"Who do you think you are? We're sons of Poseidon," Ialebion said
as he and his brother drew their swords, lunging at him.
The cold steel of Hermes' magic sword met their swords and knocked
them from their hands. "And I'm the son of Zeus," he said before
running them through with his blade. Their bodies collapsed in a
heap on the road and Heracles continued on his way to Tyrrhenia.
Heracles got the herd successfully to Rhegium, but then one of the
bulls broke loose, ran to the sea and swam toward Sicily. Heracles
hadn't much experience herding cattle, so he decided to go after
the delinquent bull. As he looked for a safe place where the herd
could not escape while he was gone, he noticed a volcano and at
its base he found a cave. He drove the cattle inside and, as he
drove them deeper and deeper into the cave, he came upon a huge
underground room where the fire of the volcano lay dormant and controlled
as a forge and it was surrounded by golden tools. The craftsman's
projects sat on the shop floor in various stages of completion.
There was a suit of jewel encrusted armor, there were two chariots,
one of gold and the other of silver, there was a metallic and jeweled
throne and ingenious iron weaponry of all types. Looking at all
these excellently crafted items, Heracles realized that he had found
the forge and workshop of Hephaestus.
"Thank you, Hephaestus, for letting me use this cave," he said to
the god. "I hope he doesn't mind," Heracles thought. "I should make
certain they don't harm anything," so he herded the cattle into
a room where they could do little harm, and he placed a huge rock
in front of the opening. "I don't think they can escape now," he
thought as he left to bring back the runaway bull.
He tracked the bull to the land of the Elymians, where King Eryx,
a son of Poseidon, had found the bull and placed it with his herds.
"Please return the bull," Heracles said to Eryx.
"I will only return it if you beat me in wrestling," Eryx responded.
They fought and Heracles won, but the king had not expected to lose
and he declared a rematch. Once again Heracles beat him. Eryx demanded
yet another match and pushed himself hard to win, but Heracles beat
him anyway and during the third match, King Eryx had a heart attack
and died.
Heracles chased the bull to Hephaestus' cave, collected the rest
of the herd then, with relief, he drove them all to the Ionian Sea.
But Heracles' troubles were unfortunately not over yet for, from
her throne high in Olympus, Hera watched him as he chased his cows
to the sea. "He annoys me," she muttered as she watched her husband's
son. "What can I find that's truly disgusting to annoy him with?"
she wondered. Then she had a wonderfully terrible idea. She placed
gadfly eggs in the water of the wetlands along the shore and, in
the heat, the eggs hatched and the larvae attacked the cattle, burrowing
into their skin and biting them everywhere. The herd started mooing
and wildly switching their tails. When that failed to relieve their
pain they snorted and jumped and ran madly in every direction through
the foothills of the nearby Thracian mountains.
Heracles tried to chase them in their mad scramble and he had finally
cornered most of them near the Strymon River, but the nasty Hera
had planted gadfly eggs there too, so the cattle went wild again.
"I can't stand it," Heracles said. "I hate these cows. I hate this
river," he said as he picked up rocks and hurled them into the river.
He threw so many rocks into the Strymon River that it became completely
unnavigable.
Disgusted with the whole adventure, he gathered most of the cattle
but left the difficult ones to go wild in the woodlands. "I hope
they're eaten by wild animals," he said in disgust as he drove what
remained of the herd to Tiryns. He gave the cattle to Eurystheus,
and Eurystheus sacrificed them to Hera.
Tales of
the Immortal Night ©2003, J.J. Kuhl
|
|
