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How Hercules cleaned out the stalls of King Augeas one day. Augean stables (6th labor of Hercules) Whose stables did Hercules clean crossword clue


Hercules feasted merrily in the palace of Eurystheus, and rumors of his amazing exploits rolled from kingdom to kingdom, from city to city, to the very ends of the earth. People and gods everywhere glorified the hero. But the more they talked about him, the more Eurystheus envied him. The evil king saw that the son of Zeus was capable of any feat. Moreover, he felt how the powerful servant despised his cowardly master. And he finally decided to exhaust Hercules with backbreaking work.

Gloomy and angry, Eurystheus walked from corner to corner all day long, figuring out where to send the hero, how to disgrace him in front of all people. Every night Eurystheus drank a whole cup of sleeping potion in order to quickly see the insidious Hera in his dreams.

But the goddess herself could not come up with anything, and King Eurystheus had various stupid dreams instead of her. This made him wake up even angrier than he was in the evening, and in the morning he began to beat all the courtiers with his staff.

Everyone who sat at the feast tried to persuade Hercules to abandon his stupid idea, believing that he would definitely lose, but the mighty hero accepted the king’s challenge.

As soon as morning dawned, he took a shovel, asked the slaves for an ax and went through the city into the forest that grew in the valley between two rivers. While he walked through the streets, people leaned out of the doors of houses, from behind the columns of temples and, choking with laughter, pointed their fingers at him. But the hero did not pay attention to them. Having broken into the very thicket of the forest, he began to chop and fell trees one by one. By noon the entire forest had been cut down. Only fresh stumps stuck out from the moss.

Having finished chopping, Hercules dumped the thick logs into a pile, wrapped his arms around them and carried them to the shore of Peneus. There he threw them into the water, covered them with earth and stones and completely dammed the river. Then he built a dam on Althea.

The whole city came running to see Hercules' work. Seeing how he was carrying heavy logs, the cheerful townspeople stopped laughing. They shook their heads, not understanding why Hercules needed dams, and said that the famous hero had probably gone crazy.

The sun was already setting when Hercules completed both dams.

He shouted to the shepherds to quickly drive all the bulls out of the stalls and open the gates as wide as possible. Then Hercules calmly sat down on the bank and began to watch how the stormy waters of both rivers, rising every minute, rose to the very top of the dam. The water bubbled and gurgled, trying to drive away the heavy logs. Meanwhile, Augeas came to see what Hercules had done during the day. Seeing the dams, the king just shrugged his shoulders, and everyone agreed that Hercules was obviously really crazy: after all, the sun was already setting, and he had not yet thought about cleaning the stalls. But as soon as the sun touched the ground, the rivers rushed through the dams. Their waters roared into one mighty stream and flooded the valley, in the middle of which stood the Augean stable. Whirling and foaming, the stream rushed through the gates of the dirty stables and, before the people had time to come to their senses, washed away all the manure and carried it through the second gate into a wide field. The very thing that people could not do in a year, the rivers did in half an hour. The stalls of King Augeas were cleared.

Then Hercules destroyed the dams and, calming the seething waters, returned the streams to their original channels. The water has receded. The clearing immediately dried out, and Augeas, and with him the whole people, saw through the wide open gates the stalls, so cleanly washed, as if the bulls themselves had licked them with their rough tongues.

The news of this feat of Hercules spread throughout the country. Blind singers sang about him, sitting in the dust in the sun at the city gates. Mothers told their daughters about him, and fathers told their sons. But the heart of the hero himself was restless. After all, the blood of the children he killed still troubled his conscience. Six great works were accomplished by his powerful hands. Many times he looked into the eyes of death. But it is always easier to do a bad deed than to make amends later. This must never be forgotten.

Many more feats had to be accomplished before Hercules could receive the desired forgiveness. We had to hurry. The great hero did not want to grow old and die without completing the lesson assigned to him by the gods.

That is why he did not argue with the greedy miser Augeias when he refused to pay him for cleaning the stalls.

Rejoice, O king of misers! - the hero said to Augeas with contempt. - I don’t have time now to insist on my truth. But beware of the day when I complete my twelfth labor. Then I will come back here and you will regret your deception...

Having said this, he left Elis and went back to Eurysthes
by her. And from then until now, people, when they want to talk about some dirty and disorderly place, say:

These are real Augean stables.

The task that King Eurystheus set for Hercules in the sixth labor outraged the hero: he was ordered to clear the stables of the Elisian king Augeas of manure in one day.

5-12 labors of Hercules

In the region of Augeas, near the fertile valley of the Althea River, huge herds of white and red bulls, which he received from his father, the sun god, grazed. Helios. Augeas's stables and stalls, which had not been cleaned for 30 years, were full of manure. Having come to him, Hercules demanded a shovel for himself; Augeas, laughing, ordered to give it to him.

“I’ll see,” he told him, “how you can clean my stables with a shovel in one day!”

But Hercules did not even think of taking out the manure with a shovel: he dug a new channel for Alpheus and, to the horror of Augeas, directed the river straight into his stables, opening their doors wide. The work was done quickly; It’s true that even after such a decisive reprisal, little was left of the stables themselves.

The sixth labor - Hercules cleans the stables of Augeas. Roman mosaic from the 3rd century. according to R.H. from Valencia

But Hercules correctly sensed that something more serious was hidden behind this safe feat. Augeas was in cahoots with Eurystheus; Seeing that Hercules so simply and quickly completed the task entrusted to him, he ordered his nephews to ambush him on his way back. These nephews were known as the sons of his younger brother Actor and were called, in a strange way, by their motherhood Molionides; in reality, their father was the sea god Poseidon, and to him they owed their gigantic growth and their unbridled temper. And so, passing through a narrow valley in the region of Arcadia neighboring Elis, Hercules suddenly came across an ambush. Not suspecting deceit, he did not take any weapons with him, and he saw clubs in the hands of his enemies. Hercules already considered himself dead - when suddenly, out of nowhere, his faithful friend Iolaus appeared nearby with a club and a spear.

The Molionids were surprised to see two armed enemies facing them instead of one unarmed enemy. But Hercules and Iolaus did not give them time to come to their senses: they rushed at them - and not even a minute had passed before both villains covered the ground with their gigantic bodies.

Hercules' indignation, however, did not subside. “It is impossible,” he said, “to punish the weapon, to leave unpunished the insidious culprit of the attack - Augeas. Let’s go to Elis: let people know that Hercules’ calling is to cleanse the earth of all lawlessness, both in animal and human form.”

And they went to Elis. King Augeis was brave at first: great importance, two warriors against his entire army! But his army, who knew about his treachery, did not want to defend him; forced to fight Hercules one-on-one, Augeas was soon killed himself.

The Eleans came out in a crowd to meet the double winner, expecting him to decide their fate. Many urged him to take the throne himself: they would feel good under his powerful protection. But Hercules indignantly rejected this proposal.

“I struck down Augeas,” he said, “for his iniquity, and not in order to take possession of his kingdom.” Augeas has a son who has not been guilty of anything before the gods; him you will call upon to rule over you when we are gone. But first I want to make a thanksgiving sacrifice to Olympian Zeus in his grove on the banks of Alpheus!

All the Eleans took part in this sacrifice, driving a whole hecatomb from their meadows, that is, one hundred heads of cattle, mainly bulls and rams. After her, Hercules announced a competition with prizes for the winners. In the evening the feast began; the wine flowed like a river, songs flowed everywhere glorifying Zeus and the other gods, and Hercules and Iolaus, and the victors of that day. And the full moon rose over the rejoicing; and everything was drowned in its soft light.

Hercules stood up. Having poured a little wine in honor of the Moon, he said to the feasting people:

“Dear diners, I would like our celebration today to mark the beginning of real games in honor of Olympian Zeus in this Alpheian grove of his, which I hear you are already calling Olympia.” If you agree, we will make a vow that in four years we will gather here again and again celebrate the Olympic Games we are establishing today.

All those present enthusiastically accepted his proposal.

  • Avrilly (French Avrilly) is a commune in France, located in the Auvergne region. Department of the commune - Allier. Part of the canton of Le Donjon.
  • The king famous for dung
  • Tsar, owner of the stables
  • The king who started the stables
  • King from the sixth labor of Hercules
  • King, mythological character in ancient Greek mythology
  • The king in whose stables Hercules found a place for his next feat
  • The king whose love for horses led to an environmental disaster
  • The king who polluted the stables
  • Mythological owner of extremely dirty stables
  • An ancient king who completely neglected his stables
    • Elis (Greek: Ηλεία) is a historical region in the northwestern Peloponnese in Greece. During the archaic and classical periods, the area was under the control of the polis of Elis.
    • The country of King Augeas, whose stables were cleared by Hercules in a day
      • "Amphitryon" is a comedy play by Moliere, written in 1668.
      • King of Tiryns, husband of Alcmene and confidante of the god Zeus, considered the earthly father of Hercules (mythical)
      • Who did Zeus turn into to conceive Hercules?
      • Son of Alcaeus, grandson of Perseus, adoptive father of Hercules in ancient Greek mythology
        • Archbishop Chrysostomos (Greek Αρχιεπίσκοπος Χρυσόστομος Α΄, in the world Khristoforos Aristodimou, Greek Χριστόφορος Αριστ οδήμου; September 27, 1927, village of Stathos, near Paphos, Cyprus - December 22, 2007, Nicosia) - Primate of the Cypriot Orthodox Church in 1977-2006.
        • The legendary Spartan king, from the Heraclid family, who ruled at the beginning of the 11th century BC. uh

The Stymphalian birds were the last generation of monsters in the Peloponnese, and since the power of Eurystheus did not extend beyond the Peloponnese, Hercules decided that his service to the king was over.

But the mighty strength of Hercules did not allow him to live in idleness. He longed for exploits and even rejoiced when Koprey appeared to him.

“Eurystheus,” said the herald, “orders you to clear the stables of the Elisian king Augeas from manure in one day.”

“He would be better off entrusting this task to you,” Iolaus grumbled, “by the way, you have a suitable name.”

“You can’t insult the herald,” Hercules interrupted him sternly. “I don’t think Eurystheus only wanted to insult me ​​by forcing me to remove dung. Something else is hiding here. We'll see."

Augeas really owned countless herds of beautiful horses. They grazed in the fertile valley of the Alpheus River, and the stables, which had not been cleaned for years, were full of manure.

Hercules came to Elis and said to Augeas: “If you give me a tenth of your horses, I will cleanse the stables in one day.”

Augeas laughed: he thought that the stables could not be cleaned at all. “A tenth of my herds is yours, Hercules,” Augeas agreed, “but if tomorrow morning all the stables are clean.”

Hercules demanded that he be given a shovel, and Augeas ordered it to be brought to the hero. “You’ll have to work with this shovel for a long time!” - he said. “Only one day,” Hercules answered and went to the shore of Alpheus.

Hercules worked diligently with a shovel for half a day. He dammed the riverbed and diverted its waters directly to the royal stables. By evening, the rapid stream of Alpheus had carried away all the manure from the stables, and along with the manure, the stalls, feeding troughs, and even dilapidated walls.

“Don’t blame me, king,” said Hercules, “I have cleared your stables not only of manure, but also of everything that has long rotted. I did more than I promised. Now give me what you promised.”

Augeas was greedy; he did not want to give up his horses. He ordered his two nephews to ambush Hercules and kill him. How could two mere mortals cope with the son of Zeus! And the ambush they set did not help - Augeas’s nephews fell at the hands of Hercules.

Hercules was greatly indignant at the treachery of the Elis king. “It is impossible, while punishing the instrument of a crime, to leave the culprit unpunished,” thought Hercules. “Let people know that my calling is to cleanse the earth of all lawlessness, both in animal and human form.”

Having dispersed the palace guards, Hercules killed Augeas in a fair duel. The inhabitants of Elis began to ask the winner to take the throne of Augeas and become their king. But Hercules indignantly rejected this request. “I defeated Augeas,” he said, “not in order to take possession of his kingdom. There is a son of Augeas, who has not guilty of anything before the gods. Let him rule over you. Before I leave, I want to make a thanksgiving sacrifice to Olympian Zeus and establish games in his honor. May athletes from all over Hellas gather here for competitions every four years from now until the end of time. And may peace reign on earth while the Olympic Games are ongoing.”

The sixth feat. Hercules cleanses the Augean stables.

The king of Elis, Augeias, was incredibly rich. Countless herds of his bulls and sheep and herds of horses grazed in the fertile valley of the Althea River. He had three hundred horses with legs as white as snow, two hundred - red as copper; The twelve horses were all white, like swans, and one of them had a star shining on its forehead.

Augeas had so many cattle that the servants did not have time to clean the barns and stables, and over many years manure accumulated in them to the very roofs.

King Eurystheus, wanting to appease Augeas and humiliate Hercules, sent the hero to clean the Augeas stables.

Hercules appeared in Elis and said to Augeas:

If you give me a tenth of your horses, I will clean out the stables in one day.

Augeas laughed: he thought that they could not be cleansed at all. Therefore the king said to Hercules:

I will give you a tenth of my horses if you clean out my stables in one day.

Then Hercules demanded that they give him a shovel, and Augeas, grinning, ordered it to be brought to the hero.

How long will you have to work with this shovel! - he said.

“Only one day,” said Hercules and went to the shore of Alpheus.

For half a day he worked diligently with a shovel. The earth flew up from under it and fell in a high shaft. Hercules dammed the riverbed and took it straight to the royal stables. The waters of Alpheus quickly flowed through them, taking with them manure, stalls, feeding troughs, even dilapidated walls.

Leaning on a shovel, Hercules watched how quickly the river worked, and only sometimes came to its aid. By sunset the stables were cleared.

“Don’t blame me, king,” said Hercules, “I cleared your stables not only of manure, but also of everything that was dilapidated and rotten long ago.” I did more than I promised. Now give me what you promised.

But the greedy Augeas argued, began to scold and refused to give Hercules the horses. Then Hercules became enraged, entered into battle with Augeas and killed him in a duel.