Orthrus

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Orthrus is also a genus of jumping spiders

In Greek mythology, Orthrus (also called Orthros, Orthos, Orthus, Orth and Orphus) was a two-headed dog and a doublet of Cerberus, both whelped by the chthonic monster Echidna by Typhon. "Orthus has a phallic name that means 'Upright-erect' and is a herm-like figure; and as for his two heads, presumably one looked backward."^[1]

He was owned by the three-bodied Titan, Geryon. Orthrus and his master, Eurytion, were charged with guarding Geryon's herd of red cattle in the "sunset" land of Erytheia ("red one"), one of the islands of the Hesperides in the far west of the Mediterranean. Heracles eventually slew Orthrus, Eurytion, and Geryon, before taking the red cattle to complete his tenth labor.

Orthrus was one among Echidna's fearsome brood listed in Hesiod, Theogony (306ff). He sired with her further chthonic monstrous creatures: the Chimera, the Sphinx (Iliad ix.664), the Lernaean Hydra, and even, Hesiod says, the Nemean lion.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Carl A. P. Ruck and Danny Staples, The World of Classical Myth, 1994, p 178.

[edit] References

• Graves, Robert, 1960. The Greek Myths, ch. 34. Graves makes highly speculative connection of these creatures with the calendar.
• Karl Kerenyi, 1951. The Gods of the Greeks, p. 52.