n the woods, for it
was decreed by fate that Hercules should one day hunt her.

For a whole year Hercules pursued her; came at last to the river
Ladon; and there captured the hind, not far from the city Oenon, on
the mountains of Diana. But he knew of no way of becoming master of
the animal without wounding her, so he lamed her with an arrow and
then carried her over his shoulder through Arcadia.

Here he met Diana herself with Apollo, who scolded him for wishing to
kill the animal that she had held sacred, and was about to take it
from him.

"Impiety did not move me, great goddess," said Hercules in his own
defense, "but only the direst necessity. How otherwise could I hold my
own against Eurystheus?"

And thus he softened the anger of the goddess and brought the animal
to Mycene.

THE FOURTH LABOR

Then Hercules set out on his fourth undertaking. It consisted in
bringing alive to Mycene a boar which, likewise sacred to Diana, was
laying waste the country around the mountain of Erymanthus.

On his wanderings in search of this adventure he came to the dwelling
of Pholus, the son of Silenus. Like all Centaurs, Pholus was half man
and half horse. He received his guest with hospitality and set before
him broiled meat, while he himself ate raw. But Hercules, not
satisfied with this, wished also to have something good to drink.

"Dear guest," said Pholus, "there is a cask in my cellar; but it
belongs to all the Centaurs jointly, and I hesitate to open it because
I know how little they welcome guests."

"Open it with good courage," answered Hercules, "I promise to defend
you against all displeasure."

As it happened, the cask of wine had been given to the Centaurs by
Bacchus, the god of wine, with the command that they should not open
it until, after four centuries, Hercules should appear in their midst.

Pholus went to the cellar and opened the wonderful cask. But scarcely
had he done so when the Centaurs caught the perfume of the rare old
wine, and, armed with stones and pine clubs, surrounded the cave of
Pholus. The first who tried to force their way in Hercules drove back
with brands he seized from the fire. The rest he pursued with bow and
arrow, driving them back to Malea, where lived the good Centaur,
Chiron, Hercules' old friend. To him his brother Centaurs had fled for
protection.

But Hercules still continued shooting, and sent an arrow through the
arm of an old Centaur, which unhappily went quite