This painting, by the Flemish artist Joos de Momper II (c. 1564-1635), was inspired by tales of the Greek legendary figure, Heracles (or Hercules), and his lengthy adventure to seize a specific herd of cattle that was located around the region of Cadiz, Spain. Scholars Pseudo-Apollodorus (c. 1st-2nd century) and Diodorus Siculus (c. 1st century BCE) both labeled the cattle as Heracles’ Tenth Labour for King Eurystheus of Mycenaean Tiryns, but their accounts differed greatly. Pseudo-Apollodorus presented the more fantastical rendition; the cattle were owned by a monstrous figure named Geryon (or Geryones)—an individual with three torsos and three pairs of legs fused to a single waist. Fittingly, Geryon also had a two-headed dog named Orthos. In that version of the myth, Heracles sailed in a great golden cup provided to him by the sun god, Helios, and trekked along the coast of North Africa and past the Strait of Gibraltar to reach Cadiz. After the locals were alerted, Heracles struck the guard-dog Orthos with a club, killed a giant herdsman named Eurytion, and slew Geryon with a well-placed arrow. Following the massacre, Heracles herded Geryon’s cattle onto Helios’ golden cup and began his journey back to King Eurystheus of Tiryns, this time setting course along the coast of Spain, France and Italy to reach Greece.
Diodorus Siculus, contrastingly, described Heracles’ mission as more of a military expedition against an Iberian civilization than as a solo heist targeting a monster’s livestock. In Diodorus’ account, the true obstacle to the success of the mission was Geryon’s father, Chrysaor, who was presented as a hegemon ruler of Spain. Diodorus Siculus wrote:
“Eurystheus then enjoined upon him as a tenth Labour the bringing back of the cattle of Geryones, which pastured in the parts of Iberia which slope towards the ocean. Heracles, realizing that this task called for preparation on a large scale and involved great hardships, gathered a notable armament and a multitude of solders such as would be adequate for this expedition, for it had been noised abroad throughout all the inhabited world that Chrysaor [he of the golden sword], who received this appellation because of his wealth, was king over the whole of Iberia…” (Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 4.17).
In this iteration of the tale, Heracles gathered his expeditionary force at Crete and then charted a course along the North African coast, through the strait of Gibraltar, and then up the Spanish coast to reach the Cadiz region. As Diodorus’ story goes, Heracles’ expedition soon became boxed in by armies led against them by Chrysaor’s clan. Rather than engage in a battle between armies, Heracles instead challenged Chrysaor’s sons (including Geryon) to duels in single combat. On the success of this move, Diodorus wrote, “he challenged each of the leaders to single combat and slew them all, and then after subduing Iberia he drove off the celebrated herds of cattle” (Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 4.18). After the duels, the locals dared not challenge Heracles. Instead, they gave him safe passage through Spain, letting him drive the cattle through the Iberian Peninsula to Gallic France. From there, as in the Pseudo-Apollodorus account, Heracles took a detour in Italy and then continued on to deliver the animals to King Eurystheus in Tiryns, Greece.
Such is the tale that inspired the painting by Joos de Momper II. His artwork seems to pull from both accounts. Harkening to the Pseudo-Apollodorus variant of the tale, the painting depicts Heracles alone; no armies, no companions, it is just Heracles and the cattle. Yet, the artwork also draws elements from Diodorus Siculus’ more mundane and less fantastical account of the story. Namely, no three-bodied monstrosities, two-headed dogs, or giant golden cups were painted in the scene by Joos de Momper. Instead, evoking Diodorus’ account of the hero’s peaceful exit of Spain after his duels with Chrysaor’s scions, Heracles can be seen driving the cattle through a picturesque countryside.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Sources:
- The Library of History, by Diodorus Siculus, edited by Giles Laurén (Sophron Editor, 2014).
- Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology, translated by Robin Hard. New York, Oxford University Press, 1997.
- https://www.theoi.com/Gigante/GiganteGeryon.html
- https://www.theoi.com/Ther/Khrysaor.html
- https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Hercules-Steals-the-Oxen-of-Geryon–692db95429f85ca6045834a4df6289e0
