His name is given as either "Orthrus" (Ὄρθρος) or "Orthus" (Ὄρθος). For example, Hesiod, the oldest source, calls the hound "Orthus", while Apollodorus calls him "Orthrus".[3]
According toHesiod, Orthrus was the father of theSphinx and theNemean Lion, though whom Hesiod meant as the mother, whether it is Orthrus' own mother Echidna, theChimera, orCeto, is unclear.[4]
Orthrus and his masterEurytion were charged with guarding the three-headed, or three-bodied giant Geryon's herd of red cattle in the "sunset" land ofErytheia ("red one"), an island in the far west of the Mediterranean.[5]Heracles killed Orthrus, and later slew Eurytion and Geryon before taking the red cattle to complete histenth labor. According toApollodorus, Heracles killed Orthrus with his club, although in art Orthrus is sometimes depicted pierced by arrows.[6]
The poetPindar refers to the "hounds of Geryon" trembling before Heracles.[7] Pindar's use of the plural "hounds" in connection with Geryon is unique.[8] He may have used the plural because Orthus had multiple heads, or perhaps because he knew a tradition in which Geryon had more than one dog.[9]
Depictions of Orthrus in art are rare, and always in connection with the theft of Geryon's cattle by Heracles. He is usually shown dead or dying, sometimes pierced by one or more arrows.[10]
The earliest depiction of Orthrus is found on a late seventh-century bronze horse pectoral fromSamos (Samos B2518).[11] It shows a two-headed Orthrus, with an arrow protruding from one of his heads, crouching at the feet, and in front of Geryon. Orthrus is facing Heracles, who stands to the left, wearing his characteristic lion-skin, fighting Geryon to the right.
Ared-figure cup byEuphronios fromVulci c. 550–500 BC (Munich 2620) shows a two-headed Orthrus lying belly-up, with an arrow piercing his chest, and his snake tail still writhing behind him.[12] Heracles is on the left, wearing his lion-skin, fighting a three-bodied Geryon to the right. AnAtticblack-figureneck amphora, by theSwing Painter c. 550–500 BC (Cab. Med. 223), shows a two-headed Orthrus, at the feet of a three-bodied Geryon, with two arrows protruding through one of his heads, and a dog tail.[13]
According toApollodorus, Orthrus had two heads; however, in art, the number varies.[14] As in the Samos pectoral, Euphronios' cup, and the Swing Painter's, amphora, Orthrus is usually depicted with two heads,[15] although, from the mid sixth century, he is sometimes depicted with only one head,[16] while one early fifth century BCCypriot stone relief gives him three heads, á la Cerberus.[17]
The Euphronios cup, and the stone relief depict Orthrus, like Cerberus, with a snake tail, though usually he is shown with a dog tail, as in the Swing Painter's amphora.[18]
Orthrus bears a close resemblance toCerberus, the hound of Hades. The classical scholarArthur Bernard Cook called Orthrus Cerberus' "doublet".[19] According to Hesiod, Cerberus, like Orthrus was the offspring of Echidna and Typhon. And like Orthrus, Cerberus was multi-headed. The earliest accounts gave Cerberus fifty,[20] or even one hundred heads,[21] though in literature three heads for Cerberus became the standard.[22] However, in art, often only two heads for Cerberus are shown.[23] Cerberus was also usually depicted with a snake tail, just as Orthrus was sometimes. Both became guard dogs, with Cerberus guarding the gates ofHades, and both were overcome by Heracles in one of his labours.
^Ogden,p. 114, with n. 256. For an example of a one-headed Orthrus see: British Museum B194 (Bristish Museum1836,0224.103; Beazley Archive310316;LIMCOrthros I 2). Other one-headed examples include:LIMC Orthros I 1, 3–5.
^Pindar fragment F249a/b SM, from a lost Pindar poem on Heracles in the underworld, according to a scholia on theIliad, Gantz p. 22; Ogden, p. 105, with n. 182.
^Ogden, p. 106, wonders whether "such images salute or establish a tradition of a two-headed Cerberus, or are we to imagine a third head concealed behind the two that can be seen?"
Apollodorus,Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Bury, J. B.The Isthmian Odes of Pindar, Macmillan, 1892.
Cook, Arthur Bernard,Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, Volume III: Zeus God of the Dark Sky (Earthquakes, Clouds, Wind, Dew, Rain, Meteorites), Part I: Text and Notes, Cambridge University Press 1940.Internet Archive
Clay, Jenny Strauss,Hesiod's Cosmos, Cambridge University Press, 2003.ISBN978-0-521-82392-0.
Fennel, Charles Augustus Maude,Pindar: The Nemean and Isthmian Odes : with Notes Explanatory and Critical, Intro., and Introductory Essays, University Press, 1883.
Gantz, Timothy,Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes:ISBN978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1),ISBN978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
Hesiod,Theogony, inThe Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Mertens, Joan R.,How to Read Vases, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010,ISBN9781588394040.
Ogden, Daniel,Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds, Oxford University Press, 2013.ISBN9780199557325.
Media related toOrthrus at Wikimedia Commons