Geryon
Also called Geryones.
In Greek mythology, Geryon is the triple-bodied giant son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe whose prized red cattle Heracles seizes after killing the giant and his monstrous guardians.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Greek mythology
- Trait family
- The Monstrous Broods
- Symbols
- cattle
Near this figure
Symbols
Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.
- cattle bears Cattle denote pastoral wealth, fertility, and sacred dependence; solar bulls embody virility and kingship, lunar cows nurture, and folklore grants herds familial sympathy and magic.
why
In Greek mythology, Geryon is the triple-bodied giant son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe whose prized red cattle Heracles seizes after killing the giant and his monstrous guardians.
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Form
- Multi-headed body
why
His most distinctive feature across sources is his triple body: accounts describe him as three men joined together at the waist, with a single lower body but three torsos, three heads, and by extension multiple arms, though the precise count of limbs is not always given the same way from source to source.
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.
- Hero meets
4 citations
- Ad de Vries, Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery, s.v. "Geryon."
- Apollodorus, translated by J. G. Frazer, The Library, p. 277.
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Geryon."
- Hesiod, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica, p. 9.