Labor IV

The tradition of Heracles’ Erymanthian Boar Labor is reviewed, with attention to literary and iconographic sources, and the richest of the former supplied in quotation. Having cornered the Boar in a snowdrift, Heracles brings it back to Argos, either by trundling it or carrying it supine over his shoulder. When he arrives with it, Eurystheus, terrified by the creature, hides in a bronze storage jar (pithos) buried in the ground. In art, Heracles threatens to dump the animal on top of Eurystheus in his jar. The Labor serves as the insertion-point in Heracles’ cycle both for his brief Argonautic adventure and for his encounter with Pholus, his wine, and the ensuing battle with the centaurs. The Pholus episode also contains the striking motif of a storage-jar buried in the earth.