Editing Labours of Hercules (section)

===Fourth: Erymanthian Boar===
[[File:Heracles and the Erymanthian Boar.jpg|thumb|left|Heracles and the Erymanthian Boar]]
[[File:Mosaico de los trabajos de Hércules, Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, España, 2016 07.jpg|thumb|Heracles slaying the Erymanthian Boar]]
Eurystheus was disappointed that Heracles had overcome yet another creature and was humiliated by the hind's escape, so he assigned Heracles another dangerous task. By some accounts, the fourth labour was to bring the fearsome [[Erymanthian Boar]] back to Eurystheus alive (there is no single definitive telling of the labours). On the way to Mount Erymanthos where the boar lived, Heracles visited [[Pholus (mythology)|Pholus]] ("caveman"), a kind and hospitable [[centaur]] and old friend. Heracles ate with Pholus in his cavern (though the centaur devoured his meat raw) and asked for wine. Pholus had only one jar of wine, a gift from [[Dionysus]] to all the centaurs on Mount Erymanthos. Heracles convinced him to open it, and the smell attracted the other centaurs. They did not understand that wine needs to be tempered with water, became drunk, and attacked Heracles. Heracles shot at them with his poisonous arrows, killing many, and the centaurs retreated all the way to [[Chiron]]'s cave.

Pholus was curious why the arrows caused so much death. He picked one up but dropped it, and the arrow stabbed his hoof, poisoning him. One version states that a stray arrow hit Chiron as well. He was immortal, but he still felt the pain. Chiron's pain was so great that he volunteered to give up his immortality and take the place of [[Prometheus]], who had been chained to the top of a mountain to have his liver eaten daily by an [[eagle]]. Prometheus' torturer, the eagle, continued its torture on Chiron, so Heracles shot it dead with an arrow. It is generally accepted that the tale was meant to show Heracles as being the recipient of Chiron's surrendered immortality. However, this tale contradicts the tradition that Chiron later taught [[Achilles]]. The tale of the centaurs sometimes appears in other parts of the twelve labours, as does the freeing of Prometheus.

Heracles had visited Chiron to gain advice on how to catch the boar, and Chiron had told him to drive it into thick snow, which sets this labour in mid-winter. Heracles caught the boar, bound it, and carried it back to Eurystheus, who was frightened of it and ducked down in his half-buried storage ''[[pithos]]'', begging Heracles to get rid of the beast.

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