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The
Fourth Labor: The Erymanthian Boar
For Hercules' forth labor, King Eurystheus commanded Hercules to bring him the
Erymanthian Boar. A boar is basically a huge wild pig that is bad tempered and
dangerous because it has long, sharp tusks coming out of its mouth. This boar
lived on a mountain called Erymanthus, which was not too far from King
Eurystheus' house in Mycenae. People
were scared of this boar because the boar would terrorize the people on a
daily basis, attacking and destroying everything in sight. So
Hercules set off to capture the boar. On the way, he became hungry and decided
to stop at his friend Pholus' house, which was a cave near Mount Erymanthus.
Pholus was a centaur, which is a creature with the body of a horse, and the
torso and head of a man. Pholus was glad to see Hercules and was happy to cook
him some meat, even though he ate he ate his own meat raw. |
Then
Hercules grew thirsty and asked for some wine, but Pholus was afraid to give
him any because the wine belonged to all of the centaurs. But Hercules was
thirsty, so he told Pholus that he would open it himself. Unfortunately, the
rest of the centaurs smelled the wine and grew angry that someone was drinking
their wine. They came to Pholus' cave armed with rocks and tree branches. When
two of them dared to come into the cave, Hercules threw burning logs from the
fire at them. Then he started chasing them and shooting them with the arrows
that had been dipped in the blood of the Hydra.
He
chased them for almost twenty miles, but most of the centaurs got away. The
rest of the centaurs fled in different directions. While Hercules was still
chasing the centaurs, Pholus pulled an arrow from a dead Centaur and wondered
how it could have killed the Centaur. Unfortunately, he accidentally dropped
the arrow onto his foot and he died instantly.
When
Hercules came back, he found that his friend had been killed and buried him.
Hercules had no choice but to continue hunting the boar. He found him easily
enough; he could hear the animal crashing around the underbrush looking for
food. So Hercules chased the boar around until he found him hiding in the
grass.
Hercules
poked at the boar until he came out then threw a net over him and carried him
back to King Eurystheus. The king was so frightened of Hercules and his
powers, that he hid himself away in a huge earthenware urn.