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The Tenth Labor: The Cattle of Geryon     For his tenth labor, Eurystheus told Hercules to bring him the cattle of Geryon. Geryon was a monster with three heads and three sets of legs. His was like this because his parents had been monsters, too. His mother Callirrhoe was the daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. His father Chrysaor had sprung from the body of the Gorgon Medusa after Perseus had beheaded her. Geryon lived on an island called Erythia. This island was at the end of the world, near the boundary of Europe and Libya. Orthus, Cerberus' brother, guarded the cattle the King Eurystheus wanted. The difference in Cerberus and Orthus was that while Cerberus is said tot have three heads, Orthus only had two. Orthus guarded the cattle with Eurytion the herdsman.

Hercules set off for Erythia, and finally came to the place where Libya met Europe. This is where, according to Apollodorus, Hercules built two huge mountains, one in Europe and one in Libya, to celebrate his long journey. These mountains became known as the Gates or Pillars of Hercules. The strait Hercules made when formed the mountains is now called the Strait of Gibraltar. This is the gateway from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, located between Spain and Morocco.

Eventually, by sailing in a goblet that had been given to him by the Sun, Hercules came to the island of Erythia. When he got there, Orthus and Eurytion attacked him, so Hercules killed them both with his club. But there was another herdsman in the area that reported all of this to Geryon who attacked Hercules just as he was getting away. But Hercules fought Geryon and killed him with an arrow.

So Hercules took the cattle, but this is where his real troubles began. First, when he reached Liguria, two of the sea god Poseidon's sons tried to steal the cattle. Hercules was forced to kill them.

 Next, a bull got loose and jumped into the sea. The bull supposedly swam past Sicily to the neighboring country. The native word for bull was "italus," and so the country was named Italy after the bull.

Eventually, the bull was found and kept by the ruler Eryx who was also a son of Poseidon. All this time, Hercules was searching for the bull. He asked the god Hephaestus to watch the rest of the herd while he looked for the animal. He eventually saw it mixed up in Eryx's herd, but the king decided that he would not return it unless Hercules could beat him in a wrestling contest. Of course competitive Hercules took him up on this and beat him three times, then took back the bull.

Eventually Hercules made it to the edge of the Ionian Sea, witch meant that his journey was almost over. But Hera di not want to let Hercules accomplish this labor, so she sent a gadfly to attack the herd. Of course the cattle ran away, so Hercules had to run all over Thrace to retrieve the cattle. Once he gathered the entire herd but since he did not know that Hera was the cause of his troubles, he instead blamed them on the Strymon river and proceeded to fill the river with rocks.

Finally he was able to bring the cattle to king Eurystheus, who ironically sacrificed the herd to Hera.