Labor X

This chapter examines the sources for Heracles’ tenth Labor, the killing of the three-headed Geryon and the stealing of his cattle. Beginning with Hesiod, it analyzes Stesichorus’ take on the myth with its surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of Geryon, whose home Stesichorus placed in southern Spain; the striking depictions of the clash in archaic Greek art; the accounts offered by the mythographers; and the assertions of settlements such as Saguntum, Alesia, Pompeii, and Rome itself that Heracles visited them on his way back to Greece. The myth proves to be endlessly flexible, appearing in a wide variety of contexts and genres.