ABSTRACT
In mythical accounts, the great hero Hercules was assigned 12 labors. The fifth labor involved cleaning out the stables of King Augeas. For 30 years, the stables housed the single greatest number of animals (cows, bulls, goats, sheep, and horses) in the country and had never been cleaned. Every evening the cowherds, goatherds, and shepherds drove thousands of animals to the stables. Hercules told the king that he could clean out the stables in one day. Augeas couldn’t believe his ears but promised to give Hercules a tenth of his cattle if he could accomplish the feat. Hercules went to work. He first tore open a gigantic hole in the wall of the cattle yard where the stables were, then he made another opening in the wall on the opposite side of the yard. Next, he dug wide trenches to reroute the Alpheus and Peneus rivers to wash out the filth from the stables. As promised, Hercules cleaned out the stables in one day. He did it by washing the huge mass of dung into the rivers he had rerouted. Hercules, however, never did get his reward because the king refused to pay him.
