Orthos
Orthos dead at the feet of Geryon and Heracles . Attic drinking bowl , painted red-figure (detail), 510 - 500 BC BC , State Collections of Antiquities
Orthos ( Greek Ὀρθός ) or Orthros , figure of Greek mythology , is a dog with two heads.
He was brought into the world by Typhon , a giant with a hundred dragon or snake heads, and Echidna , a monster who was half woman and half serpent. Orthos had - according to the theogony of Hesiod - five siblings: the Kerberos , the Chimera , the Hydra , the Nemean lion and - according to Hesiod - the Phix , which he himself conceived with his mother . He guarded the cattle of Geryoneus on the island of Erytheia . Heracles , whose tenth duty was to steal the latter, killed the master and dog and drove the flock away.
Remarks
literature
- Otto Höfer : Orthros 1 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 3.1, Leipzig 1902, Col. 1215-1218 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- Orthos in the Theoi Project (English)