Chapter 1: The Early Gods
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♠ Stesichoros, 186 PMG – Poetae Melici Graeci, p. 101 ed. D. L. Page. Oxford 1962.
Geryoneus is the son of Okeanos’ daughter Kalliroe and of Chrysaor. Stesichoros says that he has six hands and six feet and that he is winged. (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Stesichoros 10-15 SLG – Supplementum Lyricis Graecis, ed. D. Page, pp. 7-11. Oxford 1974.
♠ Th 300-03 – Hesiod, Theogony
And in a hollow cave she bore another monster, irresistible, in no wise like either to mortal men or to the undying gods, even the goddess fierce Echidna who is half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far from the deathless gods and mortal men. Greek Text
♠ Epimenides, Theogony 3B6 – Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker 1, p. 34, ed. H. Diels and W. Kranz. 6th ed. Berlin 1951.
Paus. VIII 18, 2 Epimenides of Crete also represented Styx as the daughter of Okeanos and said that she was not the wife of Pallas, but she bore Echidna to Peiras, whoever Peiras may be. (Transl. E Bianchelli) Greek Text
♠ Th 304-25 – Hesiod, Theogony
There, then, did the gods appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima beneath the earth, grim Echidna, a nymph who dies not nor grows old all her days. Men say that Typhaon the terrible, outrageous and lawless, was joined in love to her, the maid with glancing eyes. So she conceived and brought forth fierce offspring; first she bore Orthus the hound of Geryones, and then again she bore a second, a monster not to be overcome and that may not be described, Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless and strong. And again she bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess, white-armed Hera nourished, being angry beyond measure with the mighty Heracles. And her Heracles, the son of Zeus, of the house of Amphitryon, together with warlike Iolaus, destroyed with the unpitying sword through the plans of Athena the spoil driver. She was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great, swift footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion, another of a goat, and another of a snake, a fierce dragon; in her forepart she was a lion; in her hinderpart, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire. Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay. Greek Text
♠ Th 319 – Hesiod, Theogony
She was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging fire. Greek Text
♠ Akousilaos 2F13 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 51, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
PHILODEM. about piety 42, 12 p. 14 G: Hesiod (Th 306ff.) and Akousilaos say that the immortal dog Kerberos and other monstrous offsprings and the eagle who according to Hesiod (Th 523ff.) devoured Prometheus’ liver were children of Echidna and Typhoeus. (Transl. E. Bianchelli) Greek Text
♠ Pherekydes 3F7 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 60, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
SCHOL. APOLL. RHOD. II 1248: Pherekydes in the second book says that the eagle sent to Prometheus is son of Typhoeus and Echidna daughter of Phorkys. (Transl. E. Bianchelli) Greek Text
♠ Th 769-74 – Hesiod, Theogony
A fearful hound guards the house in front, pitiless, and he has a cruel trick. On those who go in he fawns with his tail and both his ears, but suffers them not to go out back again, but keeps watch and devours whomever he catches going out of the gates of strong Hades and awful Persephone. Greek Text
♠ Il 8.367-68 – Homer, Iliad
when Eurystheus sent him [Herakles] forth to the house of Hades the Warder, to bring from out of Erebus the hound of loathed Hades. Greek Text
♠ Od 11.620-26 – Homer, Odyssey
I [Herakles] was the son of Zeus, son of Cronos, but I had woe beyond measure; for to a man far worse than I was I made subject, and he laid on me hard labours. Yea, he once sent me hither to fetch the hound of Hades, for he could devise for me no other task mightier than this. The hound I carried off and led forth from the house of Hades; and Hermes was my guide, and flashing-eyed Athena.’ Greek Text
♠ Bak 5.60-62 – Bakchylides, Odes
to bring up into the light from Hades the razor-toothed dog, son of the fearsome Echidna. Greek Text
♠ Pindar fr 249a SM – Pindarus 2, p. 143, ed. B. Snell and H. Maehler. Leipzig 1975. See: Dithyrambos 2, Pindarus 2, p. 75
Kerberos <__> hundred-headed (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♦ London, British Museum B194: Attic black-figure amphora by Group E with one-headed Orthos in contest of Herakles and Geryoneus
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
♦ Once Collection Laborde: Tyrrhenian black-figure amphora with two-headed Orthos in contest of Herakles and Geryoneus
M. de Witte, “Hercule et Géryon— Explication d’un vase peint appartenant à M. le vicomte Léon de Laborde,” Bulletins de l’Académie royale des sciences et belles-lettres de Bruxelles vol. 8 pt. 1 (1841), fig. facing p. 440
♦ From Argos, now lost: Middle Corinthian kotyle with Herakles and Hydra (left) and Herakles and Kerberos (right)
Drawings from H. Payne, Necrocorinthia: A Study of Corinthian Art in the Archaic Period (1931), p. 127 fig. 45B
♦ Paris, Louvre E701: Caeretan hydria with Herakles and Kerberos
Perseus Art and Archaeology Artifact Browser
♦ Once London, Erskine Collection: Laconian black-figure cup with Kerberos
Photo courtesy of the Beazley Archive Pottery Database, Classical Art Research Centre, University of Oxford
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Artistic sources edited by Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, November 2017
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, University of Georgia, July 2020
