There is a lost epic called the Geryoneis by Stesichorus.
The fragments, testimonies and vases we have relating to the Geryoneis,
indicate the story was about a cattle-raid and the hero Geryon. Stesichorus was a prolific lyric poet (630 –
555 BC[i]). Most famously he composed a tale critical of
Helen of Troy. As a consequence, Helen
the goddess blinded him. He then retold
the tale, as Helen: Palinodes. In this version Helen never actually went to
Troy. The Achaeans and Trojans fought
and died for a phantom. Helen spent the
war in Egypt. Stesichorus as a consequence, regains his eye-sight. This epic too is lost. [ii]
The only mortal-gorgon was called Medusa. She was Geryon’s paternal grandmother. After a dalliance with Poseidon, she was
beheaded. At the time she was pregnant
with twin sons; Chrysaor and Pegasus.
Somewhat like Athena Chrysaor, fully grown and fully armed, burst forth
from their mother’s body with Pegasus. Their
father Poseidon was the god of horses and had sired a few “horses” on
unsuspecting goddesses. So Pegasus was another
divine winged horse. His duty in life
would be to carry Zeus’ lightning bolts.
It’s not far-fetched to envision the twins fleeing their mother’s
butcherer with Chrysaor astride Pegasus
Chrysaor was a giant in bronze armor.
Or a winged-pig. Yeah, confusing
I know. But we have conflicting
accounts. Medusa was a Pontide (descendant
of Pontus) and piggishness ran in their family.
One famous vase painting resolves the issue by having Geryon carry his father’s
shield. The insignia on the shield is
the winged-pig. We don’t know much about
Chrysaor. To quote Aaron Atsma
“Khrysaor's name means "golden-blade" which could be a sword,
tusks, or, as in the case Demeter's title Khrysaoros, a reference to golden
blades of wheat.”
Maybe in the abstract he was a “golden” lightning bolt; thrown to earth
and then retrieved by his brother and brought back to heaven. But that’s totally in the abstract. He married the immortal Oceanide
Callirhoe.
Okay, here’s the big part, Geryon was a giant with three bodies. Generally, he is represented on vases as
three guys in a line standing hip to hip to hip. With “six
hands and six feet and is winged." (Fragment S87) He was
non-theomorphic. (He was not made in the gods’ image.) Doesn’t mean he was a
monster. Geryon was not a monster, just
a guy who owned crimson-colored, v “shambling cattle in
water-washed Erytheia.” (Hesiod, Theogony)
Below is my attempt to piece the Geryoneis together.
Geryon lived on “sea-circled Erythea beyond the
stream of Okeanos… out in the gloomy meadow beyond fabulous Okeanos.” He had a two-headed guard-dog named Orthros[iii]
and the oxherd called Eurytion (Hesiod,
Theogony)
Atsma says “Orthros' name was derived from the Greek word orthros
meaning "Twilight". “He sired deadly
Sphinx, the bane of the Thebans.” (Hesiod, Theogony) Little seems known about Eurytion, except Stesichorus
says “of Geryon's herdsman [Eurytion] that he was born' almost opposite
famous (island) Erytheia, by the limitless silver-rooted waters of the river
Tartessos in the hollow of a rock." [iv]
“The dog (Orthros) smelled (the cattle-raider) there and went after him,
but he struck him with his club and when the cowherd Eurytion came to help the
dog, he slew him as well. Menoites
(Meneoestes), who was there tending the cattle of Haides, reported these events
to Geryon.” [v] and "Menoetes urges Geryon to think
of his parents; ‘Your mother Callirhoe and Chrysaor, dear to Ares.’" [vi]
Menoetes is urging
Geryon to not act rashly and consider his parents. This rather parallels
Priam’s words to Achilles in the last book of the Iliad;
But
Priam made entreaty, and spake to him, saying: "Remember thy father, O
Achilles like to the gods, whose years are even as mine, on the grievous
threshold of old age. Him full likely the dwellers that be round about are
entreating evilly, neither is there any toward from him ruin and bane. Howbeit,
while he heareth of thee as yet alive he hath joy at heart, and therewithal
hopeth day by day that he shall see his dear son returning from Troy-land.
(Iliad 14.485)
By this we know that Chrysaor, immortal and ageless or
not, is still around.
“Answering him the mighty son of immortal Chrysaor and
Callirhoe said, ‘Do not with talk of chilling death try to frighten my manly
heart, nor beg me… (to avoid the cattle-raider?)…for if I am by birth immortal
and ageless, so that I shall share in life on Olympus, then it is better (to
endure) the reproaches… (of men?)…and . . . to watch my cattle being driven off
far from my stalls; but if, my friend, I must indeed reach hateful old age and
spend my life among short-lived mortals far from the blessed gods, then it is
much nobler for me to suffer what is fate than to avoid death and shower
disgrace on my dear children and all my race hereafter--I am Khrysaor's son.
May this not be the wish of the blessed gods . . . concerning my cattle."[vii]
So, not only is Chrysaor alive, but Geryon assumes his
father is immortal. Immortal father and
an Oceanid for a mother: the fact that Geryon is “by birth immortal and ageless” is almost a sure thing.
So, why should he fear death? Alas, Hesiod says
“Now sing the company of goddesses… even those
deathless one who lay with mortal men and bare children like unto gods. And the daughter of Ocean, Callirhoe was
joined in the love of rich Aphrodite with stout hearted Chrysaor and bare a son
who was the strongest of all men, Geryones[viii]
The mortal Geryon seems more concerned with
his descendants than forbearers. I found
one; “Norax
was a son of Erytheia, the daughter of Geryones, with Hermes for his father.”
Pausanias 10.17.5
So in fragments S12&S13, Callirhoe sees the cattle-raider
approaching and addresses her son with words like “Obey me, my child." “I,
unhappy woman, miserable in the child I bore, miserable in my sufferings… if
ever I offered you my breast…” and
then presumably throws open “her fragrant
robe." Sounds kind of odd to
us, a mother flashing her son, but they did that sort of thing back then. According to evidence on vases, that’s how
Helen saved herself when her vengeful husband Menelaus finally caught up with
his cheating wife; opened her fragrant robe and his sword fell to the
ground. A better example is Queen Hecuba
trying to save her son Hector.
“the
mother (Hecuba) in her turn wailed and shed tears, loosening the folds
of her robe, while with the other hand she showed her breast, and
amid shedding of tears she spake unto him winged words: "Hector, my child,
have thou respect unto this and pity me, if ever I gave thee the breast
to lull thy pain." Iliad 22.
[77]
Fragment S14 tells us “then grey-eyed Athene spoke eloquently to
her stout-hearted uncle, driver of horses [Poseidon]: ‘Come now, remember the
promise you gave and (do not wish to save) Geryon from death.’" In case you don’t know the story Athena
is backing the cattle-raider. In vase
paintings, Athena is on the left literally backing up the cattle-raider, Geryon
on the right with his mother Callirhoe behind him. Poseidon is Geryon’s grandfather, hence is
interest. Why can’t help his mortal
grandson Geryon is explained in the Iliad 16 426-458. Zeus says to "Ah, woe is me, for that it is fated
that Sarpedon, dearest of men to me, be slain by Patroclus” The father of men and gods then admits he is
pondering whether to snatch him up and carrying him home to Lycia. “Queenly
Hera answered him: "Most dread son of Cronos, what a word hast thou said!
A man that is mortal, doomed long since by fate,” She tells him to “Do as thou wilt; but be sure that we other
gods assent not”… (and) some other god also be minded to send his own dear son
away from the fierce conflict;” In
other words, Zeus can’t save Sarpedon and Poseidon can’t save Geryon because if
the gods start saving every demi-god and favorite from harsh death the social
structure of the universe starts to unravel.
Fragment S15 doesn’t end well for Geryon. The cattle-raider nails him in the head with
a rock, Geryon loses “helmet with its horse-hair plume” and his foe follows up with an arrow dipped in the
Hydra’s[ix]
venom. “It silently…by divine dispensation…flies straight to the crown of his
head…Geryon drooped his neck to one side, like a poppy which spoiling its
tender beauty suddenly sheds its petals."
Part One of Bill’s Geryoneis, ends here.
Part Two will look at the evidence
from vases more closely.
Part Three will discuss the more
esoteric interpretation of all this. (In
part three we will discuss how Hera nursed the Hydra with her poisoned left
breast. The goddess’ breast was
poinsoned by one of the cattle-raiders arrows.
The cattle-raiders’ arrows had been dipped in the dying Hydra’s
bile. Hey what a minute! Ha ha!
[ii]
Hilda Doolittle wrote an inspired poem based on the few remaining lines of the Palinodes; Helen in Egypt.
[iii]
The dog was actually his nephew! Hesiod.
Theog. 295
[iv]
Stesichorus,
Geryoneis Fragment S7 (from Strabo, Geography)
[v]
Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.106-8
[vi]
Stesichorus,
Geryoneis Frag S10
[vii]
Stesichorus,
Geryoneis Fragment S11 (from Papyri):
This fragment has a lot of gaps in it, called “lacuna” in classical
circles. I filled it just enough to have it make sense.
[viii]
Hesiod,
Theogony 966 & 979
[ix]
The Hydra is brother to Geryon’s fallen dog Orthrus. Go figure!
