Mr. Lyons
English 9A, Per. 6
12 November 2014
Heracles and The Augean Stables Think about how many Greek gods and goddess there are, quite a bit right? There is Zeus with his lighting bolt or Poseidon with his trident or even Hades with his helmet. What about Heracles? Many know him as someone who has incredible strength. Most know him by his Roman name, Hercules. They both mean the same thing and represent the same person. As little kids, most people envisioned him as some large guy that had huge biceps and toned legs and could throw huge things like boulders and large weapons. As people get older the realize that there is a little bit more to Heracles than just the huge guy that throws things around. He is a major part …show more content…
As a result of loosing a dispute, Heracles had to do everything that Eurystheus said (Sewell). The Augean Stables was the 5th of 12 labors but definitely not the easiest to him or his nose (Sewell). Eurystheus told Heracles that he needed to go clean King Augeas’ stables in one day. Heracles went to the king and told him that he was going to clean his stables in one day but what Heracles did not tell the king was that he was only doing this because Eurystheus was making him. The agreed pay for this task was a tenth of the king’s cattle (Sewell). The story states that the stables had not been cleaned in over 30 years (Sewell). The king agreed to have Heracles clean his stables and give him the cattle. To clean them he but a couple holes in the walls of the stable and dug two trenches around the stables. He dug the trenches all the way to the Penus and Alpheus Rivers so that the water would run through the stables to clean them out (Sewell). King Augeas eventually found that Heracles was cleaning his stables because of Eurystheus and the king got angry. He told Heracles that he would not pay him the cattle. Heracles got upset and took the king to court. He told the judge what had happened and the king’s son even testified against him. The judge ruled in favor of Heracles and the king banned Heracles and his son from his