Editing Orthrus

{{Short description|Mythical dog of Geryon}}
{{for|the genus of jumping spiders|Orthrus (spider)}}
{{distinguish|Orthros}}
[[File:Orthos Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2620.jpg|thumb|280px|A two-headed Orthrus, with snake tail, lying wounded at the feet of [[Heracles]] (left) and the three-bodied [[Geryon]] (right). Detail from a red-figure [[kylix (drinking cup)|kylix]] by [[Euphronios]], 550–500 BC, [[Staatliche Antikensammlungen]] (Munich 2620).]]
In [[Greek mythology]], '''Orthrus''' ({{langx|grc|Ὄρθρος}}, ''Orthros'') or '''Orthus'''  ({{langx|grc|Ὄρθος}}, ''Orthos'') was, according to the mythographer [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], a two-headed dog who guarded [[Geryon]]'s cattle and was killed by [[Heracles]].<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.5.10 2.5.10].</ref> He was the offspring of the monsters [[Echidna (mythology)|Echidna]] and [[Typhon]], and the brother of [[Cerberus]], who was also a multi-headed guard dog.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+306 306&ndash;312]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.5.10 2.5.10]. [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], ''[[Posthomerica]]'' (or ''Fall of Troy'') [https://archive.org/stream/falloftroy00quin#page/272/mode/2up 6.249 ff. (pp. 272&ndash;273)] has Cerberus as the offspring of Echidna and Typhon, and Orthrus as his brother.</ref>

==Name==
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".<ref>[[Hesiod]] ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+293 293], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+309 309], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+327 327]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.5.10 2.5.10]. For the form of the name used in other sources see West, pp. 248–249 line 293 '''Ὄρθον'''; Frazer's note 4 to Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.5.10 2.5.10].</ref>

==Mythology==
According to [[Hesiod]], Orthrus was the father of the [[Sphinx]] and the [[Nemean Lion]], though whom Hesiod meant as the mother, whether it is Orthrus' own mother Echidna, the [[Chimera (mythology)|Chimera]], or [[Ceto]], is unclear.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+326 326&ndash;329]. The referent of "she" in line 326 of the ''Theogony'' is uncertain, see Clay, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2etBN0w0NGUC&pg=PA159 p.159, with n. 34].</ref>

Orthrus and his master [[Eurytion]] were charged with guarding the three-headed, or three-bodied giant Geryon's herd of red cattle in the "sunset" land of Erytheia ("red one"), an island in the far west of the Mediterranean.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+287 287&ndash;294], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+979 979&ndash;983]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.5.10 2.5.10]; Gantz, pp. 402&ndash;408.</ref> [[Heracles]] killed Orthrus, and later slew Eurytion and Geryon before taking the red cattle to complete his [[The Twelve Labours|tenth labor]]. According to [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], Heracles killed Orthrus with his club, although in art Orthrus is sometimes depicted pierced by arrows.<ref>Woodford, p. 106.</ref>

The poet [[Pindar]] refers to the "hounds of Geryon" trembling before Heracles.<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Isthmian'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0162%3abook%3dI. 1.13&ndash;15].</ref> Pindar's use of the plural "hounds" in connection with Geryon is unique.<ref>Race, [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-isthmian_odes/1997/pb_LCL485.139.xml p. 139 n. 3].</ref> 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.<ref>Bury, [https://books.google.com/books?id=c_xfAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA12 pp. 12&ndash;13 n. 13]; Fennell, [https://books.google.com/books?id=eLwNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA129 p. 129 n. 13].</ref>

==In art==
[[File:Geryon Cdm Paris 223.jpg|thumb|280px|A two-headed Orthrus and a three-bodied Geryon. [[Attica|Attic]] [[black-figure]] [[neck amphora]], by the [[Swing Painter]], c. 550&ndash;500 BC (Paris, Cab. Med. 223).]]

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.<ref>Woodford, p, 106; Ogden, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA114 p. 114].</ref>

The earliest depiction of Orthrus is found on a late seventh-century bronze horse pectoral from [[Samos]] (Samos B2518).<ref>Woodford, p. 106; Stafford, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3JDj7MRQAn4C&pg=PA43 pp. 43&ndash;44]; Ogden, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA114 p. 114 n. 256]; ''LIMC'' [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-7432b1f9afdfa-d Orthros I 19].</ref> 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.

A [[red-figure]] cup by [[Euphronios]] from [[Vulci]] c. 550&ndash;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.<ref>Beazley Archive [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/14C95B25-2CA0-4D0A-B9A9-3485A6DA50AB 200080]; ''LIMC'' [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-7432776aaa1aa-5 Orthros I 14]; Schefold, [https://books.google.com/books?id=p2DA_Aze7F0C&pg=PA126 pp. 126&ndash;128, figs. 147, 148]; Stafford, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3JDj7MRQAn4C&pg=PA45 p. 45]; Gantz, p. 403.</ref> Heracles is on the left, wearing his lion-skin, fighting a three-bodied Geryon to the right. An [[Attica|Attic]] [[black-figure]] [[neck amphora]], by the [[Swing Painter]] c. 550&ndash;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.<ref>Beazley Archive [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/067D20F1-0DC6-4244-B447-6F04D90FFE90 301557]; ''LIMC'' [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-7432651df84d1-2 Orthros I 12]; Ogden, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA114 p. 114 n. 257]; Gantz, p. 403.</ref>

According to [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], Orthrus had two heads; however, in art, the number varies.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.5.10 2.5.10]; Cook, [https://archive.org/stream/zeusstudyinancie03cook#page/410/mode/1up p. 410]; Ogden, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA114 p. 114].</ref> As in the Samos pectoral, Euphronios' cup, and the Swing Painter's, amphora, Orthrus is usually depicted with two heads,<ref>Woodford, p. 106; Ogden, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA114 p. 114, with n. 256]; ''LIMC'' [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-7432b1f9afdfa-d Orthros I 19]. Other two-headed examples include: ''LIMC'' Orthros I 6&ndash;18, 20.</ref> although, from the mid sixth century, he is sometimes depicted with only one head,<ref>Ogden, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA114 p. 114, with n. 256]. For an example of a one-headed Orthrus see: British Museum B194 (Bristish Museum [https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=398903&partId=1 1836,0224.103]; Beazley Archive [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/4B9246B1-DC20-43D6-B8CF-A396773AFAB9 310316]; ''LIMC'' [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-7432233d11cf7-d Orthros I 2]). Other one-headed examples include: ''LIMC'' Orthros I 1, 3&ndash;5.</ref> while one early fifth century BC [[Cyprus|Cypriot]] stone relief gives him three heads, á la Cerberus.<ref>''LIMC'' [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-7432e536d4ec0-a Orthros I 21]; Metropolitan Museum of Art [http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/242404 74.51.2853]; Mertens, [https://books.google.com/books?id=PLG8QLjOA5cC&pg=PA78 p. 78, fig. 31].</ref>

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.<ref>Ogden, Ogden, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA114 p. 114, with n. 256].</ref>

==Similarities with Cerberus==
Orthrus bears a close resemblance to [[Cerberus]], the hound of Hades. The classical scholar [[Arthur Bernard Cook]] called Orthrus Cerberus' "doublet".<ref>Cook, [https://archive.org/stream/zeusstudyinancie03cook#page/410/mode/1up p. 410].</ref> 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,<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+311 311&ndash;312].</ref> or even one hundred heads,<ref>Pindar fragment F249a/b SM, from a lost Pindar poem on Heracles in the underworld, according to a scholia on the ''Iliad'', Gantz  p. 22; Ogden, p. 105, with n. 182.</ref> though in literature three heads for Cerberus became the standard.<ref>Ogden, pp. 105&ndash;106, with n. 183.</ref> However, in art, often only two heads for Cerberus are shown.<ref>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?"</ref> Cerberus was also usually depicted with a snake tail, just as Orthrus was sometimes. Both became guard dogs, with Cerberus guarding the gates of [[Hades]], and both were overcome by Heracles in one of his labours.

==See also==
*[[List of Greek mythological creatures]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|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. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=C431BA809CA4DEA22A15DA9C666F3400?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0022%3atext%3dLibrary  Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Bury, J. B. ''The Isthmian Odes of Pindar'', Macmillan, 1892.
* [[Arthur Bernard Cook|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. [https://archive.org/stream/zeusstudyinancie03cook#page/n5/mode/2up Internet Archive]
* Clay, Jenny Strauss, ''Hesiod's Cosmos'',  Cambridge University Press, 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-521-82392-0}}.
* 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: {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5360-9}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5362-3}} (Vol. 2).
* [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'', in ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White'', Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Mertens, Joan R., ''How to Read Vases'', Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010, {{ISBN|9781588394040}}.
* Ogden, Daniel, ''Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds'', Oxford University Press, 2013. {{ISBN|9780199557325}}.
* [[Pindar]], ''Odes'', Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1990. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DO.%3Apoem%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Race, William H., ''Nemean Odes. Isthmian Odes. Fragments'', Edited and translated by William H. Race. [[Loeb Classical Library]] 485. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1997, revised 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99534-5}}. [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL485/1997/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* Schefold, Karl, Luca Giuliani, ''Gods and Heroes in Late Archaic Greek Art'', Cambridge University Press, 1992. {{ISBN|9780521327183}}
* [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], ''Quintus Smyrnaeus: The Fall of Troy'', Translator: A.S. Way; Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1913. [https://archive.org/stream/falloftroy00quin#page/n5/mode/2up Internet Archive]
* [[William Smith (lexicographer)|Smith, William]]; ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]'', London (1873). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DO%3Aentry+group%3D8%3Aentry%3Dorthrus-bio-1 "Orthrus" ]
* Stafford, Emma, ''Herakles'', Routledge, 2013. {{ISBN|9781136519277}}.
* [[Martin Litchfield West|West, M. L.]] (1966), ''Hesiod: Theogony'', Oxford University Press.
* Woodford, Susan, "Othros I", in ''[[Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae]] (LIMC)'' VII.1. Artemis Verlag, Zürich and Munich, 1994. {{ISBN|3760887511}}. pp.&nbsp;105&ndash;107.

==External links==
*{{Commonscatinline}}
*[http://www.theoi.com/Ther/KuonOrthros.html Theoi Project - Kyon Orthros]

[[Category:Monsters in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Mythical many-headed creatures]]
[[Category:Mythological dogs]]
[[Category:Mythological canines]]
[[Category:Mythology of Heracles]]
[[Category:Cerberus]]