Limestone statuette of the Triple Geryon - image 1

Archaic II

Limestone statuette of the Triple Geryon

Geryon was a three-bodied creature who lived far to the west with his dog Orthos or Orthros, the herdsman Eurytion, and a large number of cattle. One of the labors of the hero Herakles was to obtain the herd, which he did. The subject was popular in Greek and Cypriot art during the late sixth and early fifth centuries B.C. WebPub GR 2012 Cesnola: 4 3/4 × 6 3/4 × 3 3/4 in., 2.5 lb. (12.1 × 17.1 × 9.5 cm, 1.1 kg)

Date

499 - 475 BC

Accession No.

74.51.2586

Collection

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Provenance

  • Sanctuary of Golgoi-Ayios Photios

References

  • Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1885. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 1. pl. LVII.389, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 1293, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1988. Vol. 4: Eros-Herakles. "Geryoneus," p. 187, no. 2a, pl. 104, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.Hermary, Antoine and Joan R. Mertens. 2013. The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art : Stone Sculpture. no. 341, p. 254, Online Publication, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Counts, Derek B. 2014. "Myth into Art: Foreign Impulses and Local Reponses in Archaic Cypriot Sanctuaries." The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean, Arthur Bernard Knapp and Peter van Dommelen, eds. p. 290, fig. 16.5(a), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.