5. To the combat of Hercules and Pluto at Ephyra we will now annex the legend of Geryoneus. The cattle of Geryoneus and Pluto grazed together in the island of Erytheia;(1763) but they were supposed to belong to the Sun,(1764) and therefore were of a bright red colour. Now Erytheia was anciently believed to be near the kingdom of Hades. For the statement of Hecatæus, that Erytheia and Geryoneus belonged to Epirus and the region of Ambracia,(1765) could not have been owing to an attempt to give to mythology an appearance of reality: but he seems to have availed himself of some real tradition. This is certain, from the datum of Scylax, who would never have laid down Erytheia in his Periplus(1766) on the authority of a logographer. According to this writer it is situated between the territory of the Atintanes and the Ceraunian mountains, north of Epirus, on the borders of Greece, at no great distance from the earliest seats of the Dorians. Now it is a remarkable fact, that, even in historical times, there were in the same country, viz., near the Aous, a river running from mount Lacmon, herds sacred to the Sun, which were guarded in the daytime on the banks of that river, and in the night in a cave of the mountain, by men whom the inhabitants of the Greek city of Apollonia intrusted with this office as a particular honour.(1767) It is not probable that the Corinthians, who founded Apollonia, should have been the first to introduce this usage, although there are traces of an ancient worship of the Sun in the territory of Corinth;(1768) but we may fairly assume that the colonists merely retained a native custom. This hypothesis clears away all difficulty. The empire of Hades on this earth was conterminous with a district in which the worship of the Sun prevailed, and which contained innumerable herds of cattle, under the protection of the god; but the Greek hero, little caring for their sanctity, had driven them away, and devoted them to _his own_ gods. Epirus was always distinguished for its excellent breed of cattle, which were said to have sprung from the herds of Geryoneus, which Hercules offered to the Dodonæan Zeus.(1769)