tried to cheat him of the payment, and on the other hand Eurystheus
said, as he had been rewarded, it could not count as one of his labors,
and ordered him off to clear the woods near Lake Stymphalis of some
horrible birds, with brazen beaks and claws, and ready-made arrows for
feathers, which ate human flesh. To get them to rise out of the forest
was his first difficulty, but Pallas lent him a brazen clapper, which
made them take to their wings; then he shot them with his poisoned
arrows, killed many, and drove the rest away.

King Minos, of Crete, had once vowed to sacrifice to the gods whatever
should appear from the sea. A beautiful white bull came, so fine that it
tempted him not to keep his word, and he was punished by the bull going
mad, and doing all sorts of damage in Crete; so that Eurystheus thought
it would serve as a labor for Hercules to bring the animal to Mycenae. In
due time back came the hero, with the bull, quite subdued, upon his
shoulders; and, having shown it, he let it loose again to run about
Greece.

He had a harder task in getting the mares of the Thracian king,
Diomedes, which were fed on man's flesh. He overcame their grooms, and
drove the beasts away; but he was overtaken by Diomedes, and, while
fighting with him and his people, put the mares under the charge of a
friend; but when the battle was over, and Diomedes killed, he found that
they had eaten up their keeper. However, when he had fed them on the
dead body of their late master they grew mild and manageable, and he
brought them home.

The next expedition was against the Amazons, a nation of women warriors,
who lived somewhere on the banks of the Euxine, or Black Sea, kept their
husbands in subjection, and seldom brought up a son. The bravest of all
the Amazons was the queen, Hippolyta, to whom Mars had given a belt as a
reward for her valor. Eurystheus's daughter wanted this belt, and
Hercules was sent to fetch it. He was so hearty, honest, and
good-natured, that he talked over Hippolyta, and she promised him her
girdle; but Juno, to make mischief, took the form of an Amazon, and
persuaded the ladies that their queen was being deluded and stolen away
by a strange man, so they mounted their horses and came down to rescue
her. He thought she had been treacherous, and there was a great fight,
in which he killed her, and carried off her girdle.

Far out in the west, near the ocean flowing found the world, were herds
of purple oxen, gua