Editing Labours of Hercules (section)

===Sixth: Stymphalian birds===
[[File:Hercules and the Stymphalian Birds.png|thumb|left|Heracles and the Stymphalian birds]]
[[File:Mosaico Trabajos Hércules (M.A.N. Madrid) 06.jpg|thumb|Heracles and the Stymphalian birds]]
The sixth labour was to defeat the [[Stymphalian birds]], man-eating birds with beaks made of [[bronze]] and sharp metallic feathers they could launch at their victims. They were sacred to [[Ares]], the god of war. Furthermore, their dung was highly toxic. They had migrated to [[Lake Stymphalia]] in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]], where they bred quickly and took over the countryside, destroying local crops, fruit trees, and townspeople. Heracles could not go too far into the swamp, for it would not support his weight. Athena, noticing the hero's plight, gave Heracles a rattle which [[Hephaestus]] had made especially for the occasion. Heracles shook the rattle and frightened the birds into the air. Heracles then shot many of them with his arrows. The rest flew far away, never to return. In some versions of this story instead of the Augean stables being discounted it was the [[Stymphalian Birds]] labour for getting the help of Athena. The [[Argonauts]] would later encounter them.