Erymanthian boar: Heracles' fourth labor and the fight with the Centaurs

The Erymanthian boar was the monstrous wild boar that Heracles had to capture alive in the mountains of Arcadia, the fourth of the twelve labors in Apollodorus’ standard list. It came down from Mount Erymanthus to ravage the district of Psophis; Heracles drove it into deep snow, netted it and carried it on his shoulders to Mycenae. The story is remembered for two scenes above all: King Eurystheus diving into a bronze jar, and the wine party at the cave of the centaur Pholus, which turned into a slaughter of the Centaurs and cost the wise Chiron his life. The boar matters less for itself than for the chain of events it sets off.

A beast with no family tree, on Artemis’ mountain

Unlike the Nemean lion or the Lernaean Hydra, the boar has no place in Hesiod’s catalogue of monsters. No ancient source gives it parents, and none says Hera sent it. It is an outsized wild animal, not an offspring of Typhon and Echidna, which is why it has no place in the family tree on this site.

Its setting, though, is telling. Erymanthus is one of the highest ranges in the Peloponnese, where Arcadia meets Achaea and Elis. In the Odyssey (6.102-104), Homer has Artemis range over Erymanthus “delighting in boars and swift deer”. From epic onward the mountain is divine hunting ground full of dangerous game, a natural home for a boar beyond the ordinary.

The fourth labor in Apollodorus

The order: bring it back alive

In Apollodorus (Library 2.5.4), Eurystheus orders Heracles to bring back alive the boar that was rushing down from Mount Erymanthus and ravaging Psophis. That condition changes everything: bow and club, the tools of killing, are no help. The previous labor, the Ceryneian hind, already required a live catch, and the Cretan bull would repeat the rule.

Netted in the snow

Apollodorus tells the hunt in a single sentence. Heracles flushes the boar out of a thicket with loud shouts, drives the exhausted animal into deep snow, throws a net over it and carries it to Mycenae. The trick is seasonal and realistic: a heavy boar sinks and blows hard in mountain snow, while the man behind it can wear it down without meeting its tusks head-on.

Eurystheus in the jar

The best-loved scene comes at the end. Diodorus Siculus (4.12) says that when Eurystheus saw Heracles coming back with the boar on his shoulders, he panicked and hid in a bronze jar. Apollodorus has the king build his underground hiding place earlier, after the lion; Diodorus ties it squarely to the boar. Sixth-century BCE Attic vase painters loved the moment: Heracles leaning forward with the beast on his shoulder, about to drop it on a king who has vanished into a buried storage jar up to his head and raised arms. Pausanias (5.10.9) lists the same subject among the metopes of the temple of Zeus at Olympia.

The Pholus episode: the Centaurs’ forbidden wine

Pholus’ hospitality

Before the hunt, crossing Pholoe, the upland between Elis and Arcadia, Heracles is welcomed by the centaur Pholus. Apollodorus makes him a son of Silenus and an ash-tree nymph, which sets him apart from the Centaurs descended from Ixion and Nephele. Pholus serves his guest roast meat while eating his own raw. Heracles asks for wine; Pholus is reluctant, because the jar belongs to all the Centaurs in common. Heracles opens it anyway.

Diodorus (4.12) gives the jar a divine backstory: Dionysus had left it with Pholus, telling him to open it only when Heracles arrived, four generations later. The wine is no longer a stolen drink but a gift reserved for the hero, and its scent is what draws the rest of the herd.

The battle and Chiron’s wound

Drawn by the smell, the Centaurs arrive armed with rocks and fir trees. Heracles drives off the first with firebrands, shoots the others and chases the survivors as far as Cape Malea. Diodorus adds that their mother, the cloud Nephele, sent a downpour: the slippery ground did not trouble creatures on four legs, but it kept the two-legged hero off balance.

The fugitives take refuge with Chiron, wisest of the Centaurs, who had been driven from Mount Pelion by the Lapiths. One of Heracles’ arrows passes through the arm of the centaur Elatus and lodges in Chiron’s knee. The arrows are smeared with the Hydra’s venom, so the wound will not heal. Being immortal, Chiron cannot die and suffers without end, until he gives up his immortality in an exchange involving Prometheus. The details of that bargain vary between sources, but Apollodorus ties it directly to this wound.

How Pholus died

Pholus survives the battle only to die of curiosity. Pulling an arrow from a dead centaur, he marvels that something so small could kill something so large; the arrow slips from his hand, falls on his foot and kills him. Heracles comes back to bury him before setting off after the boar. Diodorus says the mountain was named Pholoe in his memory.

How the versions differ

Source	Place among the labors	Capture	Distinctive detail
Sophocles, Women of Trachis	unnumbered list	not described	“the beast of Erymanthus” among the feats the dying Heracles recalls
Apollonius, Argonautica 1	just before the Argo sails	brought back alive from Arcadia	dumped, bound, at the entrance to the Mycenae marketplace
Diodorus (4.12)	after the lion and Hydra, before the hind	carried on his shoulders	bronze jar; Dionysus’ wine; Nephele’s rain
Apollodorus (2.5.4)	fourth	driven into snow and netted	Pholus son of Silenus; Chiron’s wound; Pholus’ death
Pausanias (8.24.5)	—	—	tusks shown at Cumae, dismissed as implausible

Diodorus and Apollodorus do not agree on the order, a reminder that the twelve labors never had a single fixed sequence. Apollodorus became the handbook standard, which is why the boar is usually called the fourth labor.

The boar and the Argonauts

Apollonius of Rhodes (Argonautica 1.122-131) links the hunt to another great adventure. Hearing that the heroes were gathering, Heracles left Arcadia, where he had just taken the boar alive, threw the bound beast down at the entrance of the Mycenae marketplace and went off to join the Argo against Eurystheus’ wishes. The boar becomes the hinge between the labors and the quest for the Golden Fleece led by Jason.

Tusks at Cumae

Describing Psophis, Pausanias (8.24.5) notes that the people of Cumae in Italy claimed to keep the tusks of the Erymanthian boar in their sanctuary of Apollo, and immediately adds that the claim is not at all plausible. The aside shows how ancient sanctuaries collected heroic “relics”, and how an educated traveler could meet them with open skepticism.

Why the boar matters

The boar is no hybrid monster. Its danger is plain size and savagery, and the labor is about control rather than killing. It is also an episode in which Heracles brings ruin on his hosts without meaning to: the jar opened at Pholus’ cave unleashes the Centaurs, and a poisoned arrow strikes his friend Chiron. Here the labors show their dark side. The strength that frees people from wild beasts also wounds those who welcome the hero, and Chiron’s suffering in turn prepares the release of Prometheus, which later mythographers credit to the same hero.

What the ancient sources say

• Homer (Odyssey 6.102-104) makes Erymanthus a hunting ground of Artemis, rich in boar.
• Sophocles (Women of Trachis 1089-1100) includes the beast of Erymanthus among the feats the dying Heracles recalls.
• Apollonius of Rhodes (1.122-131) has the boar dropped at Mycenae just before the Argo sets out.
• Diodorus Siculus (4.12) tells of the bronze jar, Dionysus’ wine left with Pholus and Nephele’s rain.
• Apollodorus (2.5.4) gives the full account: snow, net, Pholus, Chiron and Prometheus.
• Pausanias (5.10.9; 8.24.5) describes the Olympia metope and the tusks claimed by Cumae.

Further reading

The boar makes most sense inside the Twelve Labors of Heracles and the profile of Heracles. For the other beasts he had to kill or capture, see the Nemean lion, the Lernaean Hydra, the Stymphalian birds, the Cretan bull and Cerberus. The Pholus episode continues in the profile of the Centaurs and of their mother Nephele. For the wider picture, start from the Greek mythology hub.