esent to
partake of it. By dint of persuasion, however, Heracles prevailed on his
kind host to make an exception in his favour; but the powerful, luscious
odour of the good old wine soon spread over the mountains, and brought
large numbers of Centaurs to the spot, all armed with huge rocks and
fir-trees. Heracles drove them back with fire-brands, and then, following
up his victory, pursued them with his arrows as far as Malea, where they
took refuge in the cave of the kind old Centaur Chiron. Unfortunately,
however, as Heracles was shooting at them with his poisoned darts, one of
these pierced the knee of Chiron. When Heracles discovered that it was the
friend of his early days that he had wounded, he was overcome with sorrow
and regret. He at once extracted the arrow, and anointed the wound with a
salve, the virtue of which had been taught him by Chiron himself. But all
his efforts were unavailing. The wound, imbued with the deadly poison of
the Hydra, was incurable, and so great was the agony of Chiron that, at the
intercession of Heracles, death was sent him by the gods; for otherwise,
being immortal, he would have been doomed to endless suffering.

Pholus, who had so kindly entertained Heracles, also perished by means of
one of these arrows, which he had extracted from the body of a dead
Centaur. While he was quietly examining it, astonished that so small and
insignificant an object should be productive of such serious results, the
arrow fell upon his foot and fatally wounded him. Full of grief at this
untoward event, Heracles buried him with due honours, and then set out to
chase the boar.

With loud shouts and terrible cries he first drove him out of the thickets
into the deep snow-drifts which covered the summit of the mountain, and
then, having at length wearied him with his incessant pursuit, he captured
the exhausted animal, bound him with a rope, and brought him alive to
Mycenae.

{242}

5. CLEANSING THE STABLES OF AUGEAS.--After slaying the Erymantian boar
Eurystheus commanded Heracles to cleanse in one day the stables of Augeas.

Augeas was a king of Elis who was very rich in herds. Three thousand of his
cattle he kept near the royal palace in an inclosure where the refuse had
accumulated for many years. When Heracles presented himself before the
king, and offered to cleanse his stables in one day, provided he should
receive in return a tenth part of the herds, Augeas, thinking the feat
impossible, acc