Greek PantheonPalace
Augean Stables
The cattle stables of King Augeas of Elis, uncleaned for years, which Heracles cleared in a single day in his fifth labour by diverting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus through them.
About Augean Stables
A river through a king's filth
Apollodorus 2.5.5: the fifth labor is to clean Augeas's stables in a day. Heracles diverts the Alpheus (and/or Peneus), then is cheated of pay. Later he sacks Elis. Olympia sits in the same region; do not confuse the labor with the games' charter, though some stories try. The stables are a hygiene miracle with a lawsuit attached. There is no surviving cult of the dung-heap.
On the map
Augean Stables among other places of the Greek Pantheon.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Apollodorus, Library 2.5.5
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
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