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Key Details
Type
PalaceMythology
Greek Pantheon
Coordinates
37.65°N, 21.5°E
About This Location
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.
Primary Sources
“He made a breach in the foundation of the cattle-yard and turned in the rivers Alpheus and Peneus, and the water carried the dung out.”
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