Geryon

""Kallirhoe, the child of Ocean, mingled in love with mighty Chrysaor, all the while urged on by golden Aphrodite, and she gave birth to Geryon, who of mortals had most force-Though Herakles, in sea-swept Erytheia, in due course destroyed him...""

- Hesoid, "Theogony", 979-983

In Greek Mythology, Geryon was a giant with three heads and three bodies, connected to each other as one being. The Son of Chrysaor, the giant warrior that, along with Pegasus, sprang from the blood of Medusa after Persues slew her fully formed (Chrysaor had a golden sword on him when he was born), Geryon is Gigantic like his father, but possessed far greater physical strength; indeed, out of all mortals, he was the strongest. Not even Hercules was as strong as he (Yet Hercules, as will later see, defeated him). Along with his three bodies and brute strength, Geryon also was gifted with six wings, much like a Seraphim angel of the Bible, and with these he had the power of flight.

Geryon lived on Erythia, an Island beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Anywhere beyond the pillars of Hercules was so odd to the ancient Greeks, so mysterious, that, in the words on an expert on the Documentary Series "Clash of the Gods", it was akin to "Somewhere over the rainbow" in our society, in other words like an ancient Oz. on this Island Geryon had cattle, which were highly prized and well guarded. Not only did Geryon watch over his flock, and armed himself with Hoplite weapons and armor fit for his colossal size, he also had a giant Shepherd named Eurytion and the snake tailed, two headed hound Orthos/Othus, a brother of Cerberus. Yet even this security would fail to stop the son of Zeus, Hercules, or as the ancient Greeks called him, Herakles.

After killing his wife and kids in a fit of rage and madness (brought on by his stepmother Hera), Herakles was told by the Oracle at Delphi that he had to preform 12 major works or labors, under the service iof Eurystheus, King of Mycenae and rival of Herakles. The 11th Labor concenred the retrieval of the Cattle of Geryon. Though the giants and Othrus put up a good fight, Herakles slew them all: Othrus is known to have been felled by Herakles' club, and Geryon was felled by Herakles' poison-tipped arrows, the poison being Hydra blood. With these three slain, Herakles brought the Cattle of Geryon to tMycenae, the land of the Greeks, along with it the tale of the hideous, formidable Geryon, who strength surpassed even his own.