Augeas

This is the comer, he thought, and he went to meet the stranger and asked him his name.

I am called Heracles, said he with the bow, and I seek King Augeas, for I hear word of a service he needs.

If he will pay the price I ask, I will cleanse his byre for him, and that in one day.

I will bring you to him, said Iamos, and they went together to the house of the king.

This he said cunningly, for it had so chanced that Iamos did not go with Heracles into the king's presence, and none of his household was with Augeas when he gave the promise, except Phileas, his young son.

So the false king, who thought his son was even such as himself, now called for Iamos and said, Let the seer judge between us, for he is just and holy.

And Iamos said, Is there not a witness who can say which of the two speaks truly, King Augeas or the stranger? Here is Phileas, my son, answered the king, who was present at our talk together, and can bear witness that I did not promise the hundred oxen.

But the young prince blushed red with shame for his father's guile, and said, Nay, my father, you did promise them, for I heard you.

"This is the comer," he thought, and he went to meet the stranger and asked him his name.

"I am called Heracles," said he with the bow, "and I seek King Augeas, for I hear word of a service he needs.

If he will pay the price I ask, I will cleanse his byre for him, and that in one day." "I will bring you to him," said Iamos, and they went together to the house of the king.

Augeas believed it impossible for one man to do that work, even in a year, so he readily promised the stranger the price he asked, which was 100 of oxen.

Then Heracles asked for a mattock and a spade, and they were given to him amid laughter and jibing from the king and his men, who deemed him crazed in his wits.

And when Heracles began to dig a wide trench at the door of the byre, they laughed the more.

From morning to evening, Heracles wrought at that task without rest, and before sunset the byre was cleansed.

Then lest the water should swamp the city, he went in haste to break down the dam at the ford, and they returned again to the riverbed.

The young seer would take no rewards from poor folk when they came to him for prophecies, but from the great of the land he took such gifts as they pleased to bestow, so that his wealth increased with his fame.

Now this king, whose name was Augeas, was very rich in flocks and herds, and he kept a thousand oxen stalled in a great byre near his house.

The byre was never cleansed from year's end to year's end, and at length the oxen stood so deep in filth that it bred a murrain among them.

Then Augeas set his herdsmen to cleanse the stalls, but none of them had strength to endure that noisome labor, and he took counsel of Iamos what were best to be done, who bade him send heralds abroad to offer a rich recompense to whoever would clear the byre of its foulness.

The king did so, and not many days after, Iamos saw a man coming to the ford of the river, girt with a lion's skin and bearing a great bow.

This is the comer, he thought, and he went to meet the stranger and asked him his name.

I am called Heracles, said he with the bow, and I seek King Augeas, for I hear word of a service he needs.

If he will pay the price I ask, I will cleanse his byre for him, and that in one day.

The young seer would take no rewards from poor folk when they came to him for prophecies, but from the great of the land, he took such gifts as they pleased to bestow, so that his wealth increased with his fame.

Now this king, whose name was Augeas, was very rich in flocks and herds, and he kept a thousand oxen stalled in a great byre near his house.

The byre was never cleansed from year's end to year's end, and at length the oxen stood so deep in filth that it bred a murrain among them.

Then Augeas set his herdsmen to cleanse the stalls, but none of them had strength to endure that noisome labor.

And he took counsel of Iamos, what were best to be done, who bade him send heralds abroad to offer a rich recompense to whoever would clear the byre of its foulness.

The king did so, and not many days after, Iamos saw a man coming to the ford of the river, girt with a lion skin and bearing a great bow.

"This is the comer," he thought, and he went to meet the stranger and asked him his name.

"I am called Heracles," said he with the bow, "and I seek King Augeas, for I hear word of a service he needs.

The young seer would take no rewards from poor folk when they came to him for prophecies, but from the great of the land he took such gifts as they pleased to bestow, so that his wealth increased with his fame.

Now this king, whose name was Augeas, was very rich in flocks and herds, and he kept a thousand oxen stalled in a great byre near his house.

The byre was never cleansed from year's end to year's end, and at length the oxen stood so deep in filth that it bred a mire among them.

Then Augeas set his herdsmen to cleanse the stalls, but none of them had strength to endure that noisome labor.

And he took counsel of Iamos what were best to be done, who bade him send heralds abroad to offer a rich recompense to whoever would clear the byre of its foulness.

The king did so, and not many days after, Iamos saw a man coming to the ford of the river, girt with a lion's skin and bearing a great bow.

This is the comer, he thought, and he went to meet the stranger and asked him his name.

I am called Heracles, said he with the bow, and I seek King Augeas, for I hear word of a service he needs.

The young seer would take no rewards from poor folk when they came to him for prophecies, but from the great of the land he took such gifts as they pleased to bestow, so that his wealth increased with his fame.

Now this king, whose name was Augeias, was very rich in flocks and herds, and he kept a thousand oxen stalled in a great byre near his house.

The byre was never cleansed from year's end to year's end, and at length the oxen stood so deep in filth that it bred a myrrh among them.

Then Augeias set his herdsmen to cleanse the stalls, but none of them had strength to endure that noisome labor, and he took counsel of Iamos what were best to be done, who bade him send heralds abroad to offer a rich recompense to whoever would clear the byre of its foulness.

The king did so, and not many days after, Iamos saw a man coming to the ford of the river, girt with a lion's skin and bearing a great bow.

This is the comer, he thought, and he went to meet the stranger and asked him his name.

I am called Heracles, said he with the bow, and I seek King Augeias, for I hear word of a service he needs.

If he will pay the price I ask, I will cleanse his byre for him, and that in one day.

He hunted down the enormous Erymanthian boar through deep mountain snow and returned it alive, slung heavily across his own broad shoulders.

The entire way back, He was ordered to clean the vast, filthy stables of King Augeas in a single day, an insult dressed up as a task after decades of accumulated waste, and answered it by diverting the entire course of two great rivers directly through the stable walls, washing away generations of filth in a single long afternoon.

He drove off the Stymphalian birds, whose feathers were said to be sharp enough to cut like blades, and whose droppings alone could poison an entire field beneath them, using a bronze rattle gifted to him by Athena herself, to startle the whole flock into sudden flight so he could shoot them cleanly from the sky above.

He captured the wild bull of Crete, the very same bull whose unnatural union with a queen would one day produce a monster of its own, wrestling the beast into submission and carrying it the entire way across the sea upon his own back.

Then lest the water should swamp the city, he went in haste to break down the dam at the ford, and they returned again to the riverbed.

But when he claimed his reward of the hundred oxen, an evil thought came to Augeas, and he said, "What mean you, stranger? I take the gods to witness that I made no such promise.

Shall I give a hundred oxen for the hire of one day's labor? That wage you shall never have of me, unless you can prove that I promised it." This he said cunningly, for it had so chanced that Iamos did not go with Heracles into the king's presence, and none of his household was with Augeas when he gave the promise, except Phyleus, his young son.

So the false king, who thought his son was even such as himself, now called for Iamos and said, "Let the seer judge between us, for he is just and holy." And Iamos said, "Is there not a witness who can say which of the two speaks truly, King Augeas or the stranger?" "Here is Phyleus, my son," answered the king, "who was present at our talk together, and can bear witness that I did not promise the hundred oxen." But the young prince blushed red with shame for his father's guile, and said, "Nay, my father, you did promise them, for I heard you." At that Augeas was wroth, and for all Iamos could say against it, he banished his son out of the land on pain of death, and commanded his servants to drive both him and Heracles forth from the palace.

Heracles could have overcome them all, single-handed, yet for the sake of Phyleus, and lest harm should come to him, he departed without another word, taking the lad with him.

But Iamos shook off the dust from his sandals on the king's threshold and said, "Woe to this house, and woe to Augeas, because of the thing he has done this day.

I say to you, O perjured king, that I will see your face no more, for the god whom I serve abhors lying and deceit." Augeas had a mind to slay him for these words, but he feared to lay hands on him, because he was a prophet, and beloved of all the folk, and he let him go back to his own place.

Not long after this word came to the king, that an army was marching upon his borders, and the captain of the host was the man clad in the lion's skin, who had cleansed his mire.

Then lest the waters should swamp the city, he went in haste to break down the dam at the ford, and they returned again to the riverbed.

But when he claimed his reward of the hundred oxen, an evil thought came to Augeas, and he said, What mean you, stranger? I take the gods to witness that I made no such promise.

Shall I give a hundred oxen for the hire of one day's labour? That wage you shall never have of me, unless you can prove that I promised it.

This he said cunningly, for it had so chanced that Iamos did not go with Heracles into the king's presence.

Safeguard Veterans.

Any door, the right support.

And none of his household was with Augeas when he gave the promise, except Phileas, his young son.

So the false king, who thought his son was even such as himself, now called for Iamos and said, Let the seer judge between us, for he is just and holy.

The young seer would take no rewards from poor folk when they came to him for prophecies, but from the great of the land he took such gifts as they pleased to bestow, so that his wealth increased with his fame.

Now this king, whose name was Augeias, was very rich in flocks and herds, and he kept a thousand oxen stalled in a great byre near his house.

The byre was never cleansed from year's end to year's end, and at length the oxen stood so deep in filth that it bred a murrain among them.

Then Augeias set his herdsmen to cleanse the stalls, but none of them had strength to endure that noisome labor, and he took counsel of Iamos what were best to be done, who bade him send heralds abroad to offer a rich recompense to whoever would clear the byre of its foulness.

The king did so, and not many days after, Iamos saw a man coming to the ford of the river, girt with a lion's skin and bearing a great bow.

This is the comer, he thought, and he went to meet the stranger and asked him his name.

I am called Heracles, said he with the bow, and I seek King Augeias, for I hear word of a service he needs.

If he will pay the price I ask, I will cleanse his byre for him, and that in one day.