hill
and down dale for a whole year, and when at last he caught it, he got
into trouble with Apollo and Diana about it, and had hard work to appease
them; but he did so at last; and for his fourth labour was sent to catch
alive a horrid wild boar on Mount Erymanthus. He followed the beast
through a deep swamp, caught it in a net, and brought it to Mycenae.

[Picture: Hercules fighting the Hydra] The fifth task was a curious one.
Augeas, king of Elis, had immense herds, and kept his stables and
cow-houses in a frightful state of filth, and Eurystheus, hoping either
to disgust Hercules or kill him by the unwholesomeness of the work, sent
him to clean them. Hercules, without telling Augeas it was his appointed
task, offered to do it if he were repaid the tenth of the herds, and
received the promise on oath. Then he dug a canal, and turned the water
of two rivers into the stables, so as effectually to cleanse them; but
when Augeas heard it was his task, he tried to cheat him of the payment,
and on the other hand Eurystheus said, as he had been rewarded, it could
not count as one of his labours, and ordered him off to clear the woods
near Lake Stymphalis of some horrible birds, with brazen beaks and claws,
and ready-made arrows for feathers, which ate human flesh. To get them
to rise out of the forest was his first difficulty, but Pallas lent him a
brazen clapper, which made them take to their wings; then he shot them
with his poisoned arrows, killed many, and drove the rest away.

King Minos of Crete had once vowed to sacrifice to the gods whatever
should appear from the sea. A beautiful white bull came, so fine that it
tempted him not to keep his word, and he was punished by the bull going
mad, and doing all sorts of damage in Crete; so that Eurystheus thought
it would serve as a labour for Hercules to bring the animal to Mycenae.
In due time back came the hero, with the bull, quite subdued, upon his
shoulders; and, having shown it, he let it loose again to run about
Greece.

He had a harder task in getting the mares of the Thracian king, Diomedes,
which were fed on man's flesh. He overcame their grooms, and drove the
beasts away; but he was overtaken by Diomedes, and, while fighting with
him and his people, put the mares under the charge of a friend; but when
the battle was over, and Diomedes killed, he found that they had eaten up
their keeper. However, when he had fed them on the dead body of their
late master