Chapter 10 The Tale of Hercules - 10

Hercules received a fourth task: to capture the Elymanthus boar alive, bring it back to Mycenae intact, and hand it over to King Eurystheus.This wild boar was used as a sacred object to sacrifice to the goddess Artemis, but it ruined the crops in the area of ​​Erymanthus and did great harm. On the way to Erymanthus, Hercules came to the home of Pheros, the son of Silenus. The half-man, half-horse Pholos was from Centaurus. He warmly brought out a pot of barbecue to entertain the guests , I eat raw.Hercules hoped to accompany the food with good wine. After hearing this, Foros smiled and said: "Dear guest, there is a barrel of wine in my basement. It belongs to all of us Centaurs. I dare not open it, because I Know that we Centaurs are not generous." "Open it," said Hercules, "and I promise you to protect you from their attacks.I am so thirsty right now! "

It turned out that Bacchus, the god of wine, personally gave this barrel of wine to a centaur, that is, the Centaurs, and told him not to open it in advance until the fourth generation of centaur, when Hercules arrived.So Foros went to the basement.As soon as he opened the wine barrel, the horsemen smelled a tangy aroma of wine, and they all swarmed, holding stones or sticks, and surrounded Foros' basement.Hercules took the stick of fire and beat back the first group of Centaurs, and chased the rest with arrows until he reached the Mahle River in the southeast corner of the Peloponnese Peninsula, which was an old friend of Hercules. Where Chiron lived.The Centauros defected to Chiron one after another.Hercules shot an arrow at them, and the arrow grazed a Centaurian's arm and hit Chiron in the knee, only then did he realize that he had shot his childhood friend.He plucked the arrow from his friend's knee, and then applied an ointment that Chiron, the skilled healer, had concocted himself.But because the arrow has been soaked in Hydra's poisonous blood, the wound cannot be healed.Chiron ordered his brothers to carry him back to the cave, hoping to die in the arms of his friends.It is a pity that this wish is also vain, because he forgets that he is immortal and his pain will be endured forever.Hercules bid farewell to Chiron with tears, and promised that no matter how much it cost, he would ask Death to satisfy his old friend's wish and release him from pain.We know that he kept his promise.

When Hercules returned to Foros, he saw that his friend was dead.It turned out that he drew an arrow from a dead man of Centaurus, and could not help marveling at the power of this short arrow, which could kill a life.He threw the arrow to the ground, but the arrow scratched his foot, and he died instantly.Hercules was so sad that he buried his friend under a mountain which has since been called Mount Foro. Hercules went on his way to find the boar.With a loud roar, he drove the boar out of the jungle, and chased it down into the snow, where at last he snagged the exhausted boar with a slipknot.According to the order of King Eurystheus, he captured the wild boar on Mount Erymanthus alive and sent it alive to Mycenae.