The Augean Stables
For the fifth labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to
clean up King Augeas’ stables. Hercules knew this job
would mean getting dirty and smelly, but sometimes
even a hero has to do these things. Then Eurystheus
made Hercules’ task even harder: he had to clean up
after the cattle of Augeas in a single day.
Now King Augeas owned more cattle than anyone in
Greece. Some say that he was a son of one of the great
gods, and others that he was a son of a mortal;
whosever son he was, Augeas was very rich, and he
had many herds of cows, bulls, goats, sheep and
horses.
Every night the cowherds, goatherds and shepherds
drove the thousands of animals to the stables.
Hercules went to King Augeas, and without telling
anything about Eurystheus, said that he would clean
out the stables in one day, if Augeas would give him a
tenth of his fine cattle.
Augeas couldn’t believe his ears, but promised.
Hercules brought Augeas’s son along to watch. First
the hero tore a big opening in the wall of the
cattle-yard where the stables were. Then he made
another opening in the wall on the opposite side of the
yard.
Next, he dug wide trenches to two rivers which
flowed nearby. He turned the course of the rivers into
the yard. The rivers rushed through the stables,
flushing them out, and all the mess flowed out the hole
in the wall on other side of the yard.
When Augeas learned that Eurystheus was behind all
this, he would not pay Hercules his reward. Not only
that, he denied that he had even promised to pay a
reward. Augeas said that if Hercules didn’t like it, he
could take the matter to a judge to decide.
The judge took his seat. Hercules called the son of
Augeas to testify. The boy swore that his father had
agreed to give Hercules a reward. The judge ruled
that Hercules would have to be paid. In a rage,
Augeas ordered both his own son and Hercules to
leave his kingdom at once. So the boy went to the
north country to live with his aunts, and Hercules
headed back to Mycenae. But Eurystheus said that this
labour didn’t count, because Hercules was paid for
having done the work.