Erymanthos is a mountain on the
borders of Arcadia and Helias. There
lived a terrible boar, huge in size and
with frightful tusks. This boar was
destroying everything in its path.

Many hunters tried to kill him
but nobody was successful, in
fact many had found a terrible
death from the boar's sharp tusks.
The capture of this boar, Evrystheus
choose to be Hercules fourth labor.

- Bring to me the Erymanthian boar, alive, said
the king. So that I believe that you have defeated
him.  And he had his reasons to asked that the beast
was to be captured alive. For Hercules killing the boar will be

an easy task. But capturing it alive he will have to fight the beast, therefore the boar will kill him.

So Hercules set out for his fourth labor. It took him many days to arrive to Erymanthos mountain where some centaurs lived in its woods.

Centaurs where creatures half-horse, half-man and they hated men. This was another reason why Evrystheus wanted Hercules on this task, hoping that he will be killed by them as they have done to others who have entered into their territory. But the king miscalculated things again, because a centaur named Pholus gladly offered his hospitality to Hercules.

Pholus made-up a fire in his cave to cook meat for Hercules, as he was eating it raw, and he opened a jar of sweet smelling wine to offer to his guest. The other centaurs sense the smell of the wine and run to have some also. But the wine was not enough for everyone so the centaurs got mad and threaten to kill Pholus and Hercules.

A big battle started and went on for hours. Hercules became victorious but his friend Pholus was killed during the fight. At daybreak Hercules buried Pholus and moved on to find the horrible boar.

Hercules searched for long before he finally found the boar's tracks on a snow-bank. Following the tracks soon he found the boar. As soon as the boar realized the presents of Hercules he try to run away, but our hero who had a rope with him, throw it to the boar, managing to pass the loop tight around the boars head, immobilizing it. Flinging it up onto his shoulder, he carried it back to Eurystheus, who cowered as usual in his storage jar.