The Eleven Labors of Hercules - Labor # 4

Eurytheus is not doing so well in the picking of impossible tasks so far.  Let's have a quick run-down:

1. Kill a lion with nigh-impenetrable skin
2. Kill a monster that regrows decapitated heads
3. Catch a goddess protected deer

So what does he have up his sleeve for number 4?  Robot ninja dinosaurs with laser eyes?  That would have been cool.

Instead, Eurytheus chooses to have him capture alive the Erymanthian boar.  That's right a pig.  We can look back in past movies and books and recall in horror all the evil, scary pigs that pop up in them.

Actually, I still have nightmares over this horror story.  All those baby spiders crawling everywhere, floating on strands of webbing...    Uggh!

In his defense, the boar was supposedly a really mean pig.

Anyway, Hercules has very little problems with this.  It was harder finding the little sucker than it was catching it.  All he really does is chase it into a snow bank so that it gets stuck.  In fact, the pig scares him so much that he hides in a big vase until Hercules takes it away and then says that Hercules cannot bring any more creatures into his palace.  He practically wets himself in fear.  At this point Hera is probably smacking her forehead wondering what in the name of Zeus was she thinking when she picked this bozo to torture Hercules?

The big thing about this labor was a rest stop he made on the way to find the beast.  He stopped at a friend of his that just so happened to be a centaur (not that there's anything wrong with that) and had a bite to eat.  He then saw a cask of wine and went to open it.  His friend said that it would be a bad move to do so, but Hercules said, "Ah, what's the worst that could happen?"  Upon uttering these words, he opened the cask and the worst happened.  Every centaur in the tri-state area came wanting to know who opened their wine.  Hercules was forced to kill all of them, including Chiron, teacher of heroes.

In honor of the fallen ones, I'm posting up several pictures of centaurs for your viewing pleasure.

(http://ancieastro.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/sagittarius/)

(http://caseyparkhurst.blogspot.com/2011/03/grasslands-centaur.html)

(http://elvire.deviantart.com/art/Centaur-108595716)

(http://www.everypicture.com/prints/ray-harryhausen/4500/sinbad-and-the-centaur-canvas.html)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur)

(http://www.neatorama.com/2011/05/31/anatomy-of-the-centaur/)

Random horse trivia - a horse's rear end is also known as a curple, which is the only legitimate English word that rhymes with 'purple' ('nurple' doesn't count).

If you want to read the labor in more detail, try this:  http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/boar.html