The Erymanthean Boar
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For the fourth labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to
bring him the Erymanthian boar alive. Now, a boar is a
huge, wild pig with a bad temper, and tusks growing out
of its mouth.
This one was called the Erymanthian boar, because it
lived on a mountain called Erymanthus. Every day the
boar would come crashing down from his lair on the
mountain, attacking men and animals all over the
countryside, gouging them with its tusks, and destroying
everything in its path.
On his way to hunt the boar, Hercules stopped to visit
his friend Pholus, who was a centaur and lived in a cave
near Mount Erymanthus. Everyone knows that centaur is
a human from his head to his waist, and a horse for the
rest of his body and his legs. Hercules was hungry and
thirsty, so the kindly centaur cooked Hercules some meat
in the fireplace, while he himself ate his meat raw.
When Hercules asked for wine, Pholus said that he was
afraid to open the wine jar, because it belonged to all the
centaurs in common. But Hercules said not to worry, and
opened it himself.
Soon afterwards, the rest of the centaurs smelled the
wine and came to Pholus’s cave. They were angry that
someone was drinking all of their wine. The first two who
dared to enter were armed with rocks and fir trees.
Hercules grabbed burning sticks from the fireplace and
threw them at the centaurs, then went after them with his
club.
He shot arrows at the rest of them and chased after them
for about twenty miles. The rest of the centaurs fled in
different directions. One of the centaurs, Chiron,
received a wound that no amount of medicine would
heal…but what happened to Chiron is another story.
While Hercules was gone, Pholus pulled an arrow from
the body of one of the dead centaurs. He wondered that
so little a thing could kill such a big creature. Suddenly,
the arrow slipped from his hand. It fell onto his foot and
killed him on the spot. So when Hercules returned, he
found Pholus dead. He buried his centaur friend, and
proceeded to hunt the boar.
It wasn’t too hard for Hercules to find the boar. He could
hear the beast snorting and stomping as it rooted around
for something to eat. Hercules chased the boar round and
round the mountain, shouting as loud as he could. The
boar, frightened and out of breath, hid in a thicket.
Hercules poked his spear into the thicket and drove the
exhausted animal into a deep patch of snow.
Then he trapped the boar in a net, and carried it all the
way to Mycenae. Eurystheus, again amazed and
frightened by the hero’s powers, hid in his partly buried
bronze jar.