6th. The stable of Augias
The
sixth job that Eurystheus had for Heracles was on purpose a humiliation:
he was supposed to clean in one whole day the stable of the king
Augias,
in Elis. The king was very surprised with the offer and told the hero
that if he succeeded, he would give him one tenth of his cattle.
Heracles opened
then two holes in the walls of the stable and redirected the river next
to it so that it would go through the stable. The river did the rest.
However, the king did not keep his promise, something he would regret
because the hero swore he would get revenge and never forgot it.
7th. The bull from Crete
The seventh
task was to tame the Minotaur from Crete and bring it to Argos. So he
did, and later he let him free again. The animal would be killed some
time after by another hero, Thesseus, the king of Athens.
8th. The mares of
Diomedes
His eight job
was to bring the mares of Diomedes from Thracian to Mycenae. These asses
lived in the mountain of Diomedes and were fed with the meat of the
visitors who dared to pass by the area. Heracles threw them their own
master, tamed them, and brought them to Mycenae.
After this he did a little break to
join the trip of the Argonauts from Jason and his friends, but he left
quite early because he had other things to do.
9th.
The Amazons
The ninth job
he got assigned was to get the famous war belt of
Hippolyta, the queen
of the Amazons. For this he gathered a couple of friends and they left
to the south coast of the Black Sea, where the Amazons lived. When they
met them, Heracles told them their story and, just about when the queen
was convinced to give them the belt, Hera started to pass around the
rumor that the strangers were thieves. This started a violent fight that
ended with the victory of Heracles and his friends, who took the belt
home.
On the way back
they passed by the city of Troy, were they saw a girl standing tied to a
rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster. She was Hesoine, the daughter of
Laomedon, the king of Troy. Poseidon had built the wall of his town, but
the king had not paid the God what he had promised. For this reason,
Poseidon had sent the monster to plunge the city into fear and terror
until the king would offer the beast his daughter as a punishment.
Laomedon promised then Heracles that he would give him the golden horse
carriage he had from Zeus if he managed to save his daughter. Heracles
jumped immediately into the monster's mouth and chocked its entrails
into pieces until the beast was dead.
Again, Heracles
did not get the promised reward and, again, he swore revenge.
Perseus / Heracles / Theseus / The Argonauts / Odyssey / Phaethon / Orpheus
