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    Hercules' Sixth Labor - The Stymphalian Birds

    Uploaded by

    One Spirit

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    of 3

    The Stymphalian Birds

    After Hercules returned from his success in the Augean stables,


    Eurystheus came up with an even more difficult task. For the
    sixth Labor, Hercules was to drive away an enormous flock of
    birds which gathered at a lake near the town of Stymphalos.

    Arriving at the lake, which was deep in the woods, Hercules had
    no idea how to drive the huge gathering of birds away. The
    goddess Athena came to his aid, providing a pair of bronze
    krotala, noisemaking clappers similar to castanets. These were
    no ordinary noisemakers. They had been made by an immortal
    craftsman, Hephaistos, the god of the forge.

    Dancer with krotala, flute case, and walking stick


    Philadelphia MS2445, Attic red figure kylix, ca. 480 B.C.
    Photograph by Maria Daniels, courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania
    Museum

    Climbing a nearby mountain, Hercules clashed the krotala


    loudly, scaring the birds out of the trees, then shot them with bow
    and arrow, or possibly with a slingshot, as they took flight.
    :
    Hercules and the Stymphalian birds
    London B 163, Attic black figure amphora, ca. 560-530 B.C.
    Photograph courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum, London

    Some versions of the legend say that these Stymphalian birds


    were vicious man-eaters. The 2nd century A.D. travel writer,
    Pausanias, trying to discover what kind of birds they might have
    been, wrote that during his time a type of bird from the Arabian
    desert was called "Stymphalian," describing them as equal to
    lions or leopards in their fierceness. He speculated that the birds
    Hercules encountered in the legend were similar to these Arabian
    birds.

    These fly against those who come to hunt them, wounding and
    killing them with their beaks. All armor of bronze or iron that
    men wear is pierced by the birds; but if they weave a garment
    of thick cork, the beaks of the Stymphalian birds are caught in
    the cork garment... These birds are of the size of a crane, and
    are like the ibis, but their beaks are more powerful, and not
    crooked like that of the ibis.

    Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8.22.5

    Pausanias also saw and described the religious sanctuary built by


    the Greeks of Stymphalos and dedicated to the goddess Artemis.
    He reported that the temple had carvings of the Stymphalian
    birds up near its roof. Standing behind the temple, he saw marble
    statues of maidens with the legs of birds.
    :
    (md)

    To read more about these topics, see Further Resources.

    Labor 1: The Nemean Lion


    Labor 2: The Lernean Hydra
    Labor 3: The Hind of Ceryneia
    Labor 4: The Erymanthean Boar
    Labor 5: The Augean Stables
    Labor 6: The Stymphalian Birds
    Labor 7: The Cretan Bull
    Labor 8: The Horses of Diomedes
    Labor 9: The Belt of Hippolyte
    Labor 10: Geryon's Cattle
    Labor 11: The Apples of the Hesperides
    Labor 12: Cerberus

    This exhibit is a subset of materials from the Perseus Project


    database and is copyrighted. Please send us your comments.
    :

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