Orthrus
Orthus in Frazer’s translation
The two-headed watchdog of Geryon’s cattle, encountered by Heracles on Erythia during his tenth labour.
Quick answer
Orthrus is Geryon’s two-headed watchdog in Apollodorus’s Library, where Frazer names him Orthus. Born of Typhon and Echidna, he guards the cattle on Erythia alongside the herdsman Eurytion. He rushes at Heracles and is killed with the hero’s club during the tenth labour.[1]
Quick facts
| Record type | Named individual creature in Greek mythography |
|---|---|
| Source | Apollodorus, Library 2.5.10; Frazer (1921) |
| Name in this edition | Orthus; catalogued here under Orthrus |
| Source realm | Erythia in the Greek mythic world |
| Form | Two-headed hound |
| Parents | Typhon and Echidna |
| Charge | Geryon’s red cattle; Eurytion is their herdsman |
| Outcome | Killed by Heracles with a club |
All account details follow the selected section.[1]
What the source says
The tenth labour requires Heracles to fetch Geryon’s cattle from Erythia. The compiler introduces their owner, the herdsman Eurytion, and the two-headed watchdog Orthus, whose parents are Typhon and Echidna. After crossing the ocean in the Sun’s golden goblet, Heracles reaches the island and lodges on Mount Abas.[1]
The dog perceives Heracles and charges him. Heracles strikes him with his club; when Eurytion comes to the dog’s aid, the hero kills the herdsman too. Menoetes, who is pasturing Hades’s cattle there, reports the events to Geryon. The subsequent battle beside the river Anthemus is between Geryon and Heracles, who is already driving the cattle away.[1]
Description and behaviour
Two heads and a hound’s form are explicit. The passage gives no measurements, coat colour, tail description, speech, or special attack. The red colour belongs to the cattle. Orthrus detects an intruder and rushes at him, but the account does not explain how he perceives Heracles or assign separate powers to his heads.[1]
The amphora is a separate artistic account. Its bodily details and depiction of the fallen dog do not add anatomy or weapons to the selected prose narrative.
Source realm: Erythia
The compiler places Erythia near the ocean and identifies it with Gadira. Mount Abas is Heracles’s lodging before the dog attacks; the river Anthemus is the setting of the later fight with Geryon. These are locations in this witness, not a reconstructed map or a habitat shared by a species of two-headed dogs.[1]
Orthrus belongs under Mythic cosmos as an individual creature in Greek mythography. Menoetes’s nearby herd belongs to Hades, but the text assigns Orthrus to Geryon’s cattle; it does not make him a guardian of the underworld.[1]
Book and reference
- 1The Library
Apollodorus (conventionally Pseudo-Apollodorus); with an English translation by Sir James George Frazer. Volume I, Loeb Classical Library 121. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1921. Book 2, chapter 5, section 10 (2.5.10). Public-domain translation; Theoi transcription.
Read Book 2; locate [2.5.10] ↗Edition and authorship note ↗. The ancient compiler’s identity and exact date are uncertain; the traditional name is a bibliographic convention.