Geryon spends the next few years in a 'numb time' (72), working at a local library 'shelving government documents' (72). He tells Geryon 'you know we'll always be friends' (62), but this doesn't ease Geryon's heartbreak. This devastates Geryon, though Herakles seems unaffected. The day before they go see the volcano, Herakles breaks things off with Geryon. During a trip to his family's home in the island town of Hades, Herakles takes his grandmother and Geryon to see an active volcano, which Herakles' grandmother had photographed just after its last eruption, in 1925. Whereas Herakles sees sex as 'a way of getting to know someone' (44), Geryon has 'a question about it' (45) and never seems quite comfortable with being sexual with Herakles.

Geryon begins to spend most of his free time with Herakles and eventually they engage in a sexual relationship. At age fourteen, Geryon meets Herakles, a boy two years older than himself. After the abuse, Geryon begins to write his 'autobiography' (29), in which he includes 'all inside things particularly his own heroism' (29) and 'coolly' omits 'outside things' (29). Geryon is introduced as a young boy, walking to school with his 'bigger and older' (23) brother, whom will later bully and sexually abuse Geryon. The novel begins with an epigraph by Emily Dickinson in the form of a poem about a volcano. Finally, Carson includes a section, formatted in either/or statements, attempting to-though never quite-clearing up Stesichoros' blindness. Stesichoros gets his sight back by writing a 'palinode' (16) to Helen, in which he retracts his previous poem. Carson then introduces the story of how Helen of Troy allegedly strikes Stesichoros blind for writing unsavory things about Helen. The fragments tell the tale of Geryon, 'a monster everything about him was red' (9), growing up on an island with his parents and dog, then both being slain by Herakles' 'killing club' (13) and 'arrow' (13).

The novel begins with an introduction to Stesichoros' poetic style, along with some fragments of his poem, “Geryoneis,” translated by Carson.

Herakles anne carson