The plane problem of the small steady-state oscillations of a horizontal cylinder arbitrarily located in a three-layer fluid whose upper and lower layers are homogeneous and whose middle layer is linearly stratified is considered in the linear formulation using the Boussinesq approximation. The fluid is assumed to be ideal and incompressible. The method of mass sources distributed along the body contour is used in the internal wave generation regime and an integral equation for the fluid pressure is derived in the non-wave regime. The hydrodynamic load acting on the body is calculated as a function of the oscillation frequency of the cylinder and its location. The results are compared with experimental data.