bows bent; unchallenged he went on, and
he came to his ship and he sailed away from that country with one more
labor accomplished.

The labor that followed was not dangerous. He sailed over sea and he
came to Crete, to the land that King Minos ruled over. And there he
found, grazing in a special pasture, the bull that Poseidon had given
King Minos. He laid his hands upon the bull's horns and he struggled
with him and he overthrew him. Then he drove the bull down to the
seashore.

His next labor was to take away the herd of red cattle that was owned
by the monster Geryoneus. In the Island of Erytheia, in the middle of
the Stream of Ocean, lived the monster, his herd guarded by the
two-headed hound Orthus--that hound was the brother of Cerberus, the
three-headed hound that kept guard in the Underworld.

Mounted upon the bull given Minos by Poseidon, Heracles fared across
the sea. He came even to the straits that divide Europe from Africa,
and there he set up two pillars as a memorial of his journey--the
Pillars of Heracles that stand to this day. He and the bull rested
there. Beyond him stretched the Stream of Ocean; the Island of Erytheia
was there, but Heracles thought that the bull would not be able to bear
him so far.

And there the sun beat upon him, and drew all strength away from him,
and he was dazed and dazzled by the rays of the sun. He shouted out
against the sun, and in his anger he wanted to strive against the sun.
Then he drew his bow and shot arrows upward. Far, far out of sight the
arrows of Heracles went. And the sun god, Helios, was filled with
admiration for Heracles, the man who would attempt the impossible by
shooting arrows at him; then did Helios fling down to Heracles his
great golden cup.

Down, and into the Stream of Ocean fell the great golden cup of Helios.
It floated there wide enough to hold all the men who might be in a
ship. Heracles put the bull of Minos into the cup of Helios, and the
cup bore them away, toward the west, and across the Stream of Ocean.

Thus Heracles came to the Island of Erytheia. All over the island
straggled the red cattle of Geryoneus, grazing upon the rich pastures.
Heracles, leaving the bull of Minos in the cup, went upon the island;
he made a club for himself out of a tree and he went toward the cattle.

The hound Orthus bayed and ran toward him; the two-headed hound that
was the brother of Cerberus sprang at Heracles with poisonous foam upon
his jaws. Her