Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Orthrus.
The gallery
Heracles, Geryon and the Slain Orthrus (Red-Figure Kylix)
Euphronios (painter), Kachrylion (potter), c. 510–500 BC
On this Attic red-figure kylix, signed by the painter Euphronios and the potter Kachrylion, the two-headed hound Orthrus lies dead at the feet of his foes. Sprawled on the ground with both canine heads collapsed and his serpent tail trailing behind him, Orthrus has already fallen in the cattle-raid of the tenth labour: at left Heracles closes on the herd, while at right the three-bodied giant Geryon — Orthrus' master — still stands armed for the fight. The vase, found at Vulci and acquired for the Munich collection in 1831, is one of the finest archaic depictions of the watchdog of Erytheia, fixing his characteristic two heads and snake-tail. Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich (inv. 2620).
Geryon and Orthrus (Attic Black-Figure Neck-Amphora)
The Swing Painter, c. 540 BC
Side B of an Attic black-figure neck-amphora attributed to the Swing Painter shows the two-headed Orthrus beside his master, the three-bodied Geryon, guarding the red cattle of Erytheia. The hound is rendered in the bristling silhouette typical of archaic vase-painting, his twin heads turned toward the threat that will end him — Heracles, who in Hesiod's account slays both the watchdog and the herdsman Eurytion before driving off the herd. Made at Athens and found at Vulci, the amphora is one of the canonical sixth-century witnesses to Orthrus' two-headed form and his role as Geryon's guard-dog. Cabinet des médailles, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (De Ridder 223 = Luynes 715).
Hercules Slays Geryon and His Hound
Unknown (Dutch printmaker, Works of Hercules series), 16th–17th century
A Dutch engraving from a Works of Hercules series (Rijksmuseum, RP-P-1944-1074) shows Hercules in the tenth labour cutting down the three-bodied Geryon while the two-headed hound — Orthrus — falls at their feet. The print keeps the Hesiodic pairing of master and watchdog intact for early-modern viewers: the cattle of Erytheia cannot be driven until both the giant and his dog are slain. It is a clear Northern-Renaissance sequel to the archaic vase tradition of Orthrus.
In play
Orthrus
Geryon's two-headed hound endures as Cerberus' lesser brother — Orthrus slain with his master when Heracles drove the red cattle.
Labours of Hercules
The tenth labour still names Orthrus beside Geryon and Eurytion — the two-headed watchdog as the first kill on Erytheia.