6th. The stable of Augias

The sixth job that Eurystheus had for Heracles was on purpose a humiliation: he was supposed to clean in one whole day the stable of the king Augias, in Elis. The king was very surprised with the offer and told the hero that if he succeeded, he would give him one tenth of his cattle.

Heracles opened then two holes in the walls of the stable and redirected the river next to it so that it would go through the stable. The river did the rest. However, the king did not keep his promise, something he would regret because the hero swore he would get revenge and never forgot it.

7th. The bull from Crete

The seventh task was to tame the Minotaur from Crete and bring it to Argos. So he did, and later he let him free again. The animal would be killed some time after by another hero, Theseus, the king of Athens.

8th. The mares of Diomedes

His eight job was to bring the mares of Diomedes from Thracian to Mycenae. These asses lived in the mountain of Diomedes and were fed with the meat of the visitors who dared to pass by the area. Heracles threw them their own master, tamed them, and brought them to Mycenae.

After this he did a little break to join the trip of the Argonauts from Jason and his friends, but he left quite early because he had other things to do.

9th. The Amazons

The ninth job he got assigned was to get the famous war belt of Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons. For this he gathered a couple of friends and they left to the south coast of the Black Sea, where the Amazons lived. When they met them, Heracles told them their story and, just about when the queen was convinced to give them the belt, Hera started to pass around the rumor that the strangers were thieves. This started a violent fight that ended with the victory of Heracles and his friends, who took the belt home.

On the way back they passed by the city of Troy, were they saw a girl standing tied to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster. She was Hesoine, the daughter of Laomedon, the king of Troy. Poseidon had built the wall of his town, but the king had not paid the God what he had promised. For this reason, Poseidon had sent the monster to plunge the city into fear and terror until the king would offer the beast his daughter as a punishment. Laomedon promised then Heracles that he would give him the golden horse carriage he had from Zeus if he managed to save his daughter. Heracles jumped immediately into the monster’s mouth and chocked its entrails into pieces until the beast was dead.

Again, Heracles did not get the promised reward and, again, he swore revenge.