n an island in a lake near Stymphalus, in Arcadia, there nested in
those days some remarkable and terrible birds--remarkable because
their claws, wings and beaks were brazen, and terrible because they
fed on human flesh and attacked with their terrible beaks and claws
all who came near the lake. To kill these dreadful birds was the sixth
labor.

Minerva supplied Hercules with a brazen rattle with which he roused
the birds from their nests, and then slew them with his poisoned
arrows while they were on the wing.

This victory made Hercules popular throughout the whole of Greece, and
Eurystheus saw that nothing he could devise was too hard for the hero
to accomplish.

The seventh labor was to capture a mad bull that the Sea-god Neptune
had let loose in the island of Crete, of which island Minos was at
that time King.

This ferocious creature breathed out from his nostrils a whirlwind of
flaming fire. But Hercules was, as you no doubt have guessed, too much
for the brazen bull.

He not only caught the monster, but tamed him, and bore him aloft on
his shoulders, into the presence of the affrighted Eurystheus, who was
at a loss to find a task impossible for Hercules to perform.

The taking of the mares of Diomedes was the eighth labor. These horses
were not ordinary horses, living on corn. They were flesh eaters, and
moreover, they devoured human beings, and so were hateful to mankind.

On this occasion Hercules was not alone. He organised a hunt and,
by the help of a few friends, caught the horses and led them to
Eurystheus. The scene of this labor was Thrace, an extensive region
lying between the AEgean Sea, the Euxine or Black Sea, and the Danube.

Seizing the girdle of Hippolyte was the next feat set for the hero.
This labor was due to the desire of the daughter of Eurystheus for the
girdle of Hippolyte, Queen of the Amazons--a tribe of female warriors.
It is said that the girls had their right breasts cut off in order
that they might use the bow with greater ease in battle! This, indeed,
is the meaning of the term Amazon, which signifies "breastless."

After a troublesome journey Hercules arrived safely at the Court of
Hippolyte, who received him kindly; and this labor might, perchance,
have been a bloodless one had not his old enemy Juno stirred up the
female warriors against him.

In the fight that followed, Hercules killed Hippolyte--a feat scarcely
to be proud of--and carried off her girdle, and thus the