What does Augean stable mean?
What does Augean stable mean?
“Augean stable” most often appears in the phrase “clean the Augean stable,” which usually means “clear away corruption” or “perform a large and unpleasant task that has long called for attention.” Augeas, the mythical king of Elis, kept great stables that held 3,000 oxen and had not been cleaned for thirty years — …
How do you use Augean in a sentence?
1. The fifth labor was to clean the Augean stables in a single day. 2. Its purpose Augean – no less than to perform an act of reparation for the sins of students everywhere.
How does Hercules clean the Augean stables?
Next, he dug wide trenches to two rivers which flowed nearby. He turned the course of the rivers into the yard. The rivers rushed through the stables, flushing them out, and all the mess flowed out the hole in the wall on other side of the yard.
Who was the father of King Augeias?
Augeas, also spelled Augeias or Augias, in Greek legend, king of the Epeians in Elis, a son of the sun-god Helios. He possessed an immense wealth of herds, and King Eurystheus imposed upon the Greek hero Heracles the task of clearing out all of Augeas’s stables unaided in one day.
What does Augean task mean?
: extremely formidable or difficult and occasionally distasteful an Augean task.
What was in the Augean stables?
the stables in which King Augeas kept 3,000 oxen, and which had not been cleaned for 30 years. The cleaning of these stables was accomplished by Hercules, who diverted the river Alpheus through them.
What does the word backbreaking mean?
Definition of backbreaking : extremely arduous, exhausting, or demoralizing backbreaking labor backbreaking rents.
How many cattle were in the Augean stables?
plural noun Classical Mythology. the stables in which King Augeas kept 3,000 oxen, and which had not been cleaned for 30 years. The cleaning of these stables was accomplished by Hercules, who diverted the river Alpheus through them.
Why was the Augean stables significant to Olympia?
Subject Description: The last metope in the series at Olympia illustrates the cleaning of the Augean stables, which were full of dung. Herakles performed this task for Augeas, king of Elis, by diverting the course of the Alpheios through the stables to carry the manure away.
How did Hercules slay the Stymphalian birds?
The Stymphalian birds were defeated by Heracles (Hercules) in his sixth labour for Eurystheus. Heracles then shot many of them with feathered arrows tipped with poisonous blood from the slain Hydra.
