Of centaurs and satyrs: Stesichorus' Geryoneis and satyr drama

This paper examines the archaic Greek lyric poet Stesichorus and in particular his Geryoneis, a poem that deals with Heracles' journey to the distant west to steal the cattle of the three-headed monster Geryon, and that is probably the best known of his works. Its fame among classicists is owed chiefly to the manuscript P.Oxy. 2617. This precious find, published in 1967, contains substantial sections of a mythological narrative describing Heracles' mission to acquire the cattle belonging to Geryon, a three-headed monster living at the world's end. The work, the only full-scale account of the labour in ancient poetry, describes how Heracles travels in the Sun's golden bowl to the island of Erytheia near the river Tartessus; how Geryon is implored first by a friend, then by his own mother, not to fight the mighty warrior who has come to take his animals; how Heracles strikes Geryon's first head with an arrow, before (we presume — this section is not preserved) closing to finish off the other two at close quarters; and how Heracles returns to Greece with the cattle. A surprising aspect of the poem is its inclusion (probably towards its end, which described Heracles' return from the west) of the myth of Pholus, a centaur in Arcadia who entertains Heracles with wine of exceptional quality, but whose hospitality leads to disaster when the other centaurs, drawn by the scent of the wine, begin a brawl in which Pholus is killed. The parallels between centaurs and satyrs — both animal–human hybrids with tendencies towards passion and violence — point towards an intriguing parallel with Greek drama, which at the Dionysia festival at Athens in the fifth century saw three tragedies followed by a satyr play; here, just as apparently in Stesichorus' poem, elevated poetry has as a codicil something altogether more earthy in character.