Coverpage -
Introduction
-
The Lion, Hydra, & Stag -
The
Boar, Stables, & Birds -
The Bull,
Mares, & Girdle -
The Cattle, Apples,
& Cerberus
Author's Note: As with the first
three, this retelling of the next three
Herculean Labors are
fairly similar to their common tellings. It should be noted that
the
Herculean Labors have been passed down through the generations by word
of mouth, and that they have only been committed to writing in the past
couple millenia, so different versions of the stories vary in minor
ways. However, there are some differences between this version
and
the other versions I read.
In the original telling of the labors, Hercules actually made a
pitstop on his way to complete the Fourth Labor (capturing the
boar).
He stopped to eat with some centaurs (half-human, half-horse) and ended
up
getting drunk when he had some very potent wine. To make a long
story short, he got upset and ended up starting a
fight and killing many of them. They retreated to their leader's
house,
and Hercules accidentally killed him with a poison arrow, only to find
out later that it was Chiron, the centaur who served as his teacher and
mentor. I omitted this portion of the story because I am
trying to present Hercules in a positive light, and he obviously really
did have some anger issues.
Another major difference in some versions is that after cleaning the
Augean
stables, Hercules actually did try to follow through on Augeas's offer
of compensation for his work (the offer was ten percent of the
livestock in the
stable). Augeas refused, however, saying that Hercules did not do
the
work, but rather the river did. What happened after that varies
in different versions, but many say he threatened to kill Augeas or he
actually did kill him, either way to teach him a lesson about honesty.