Augeias of Elis

In Greek mythology, Augeas (or Augeias, , ), whose name means "bright", was king of Elis and father of Epicaste. Some say that Augeas was one of the Argonauts. He is known for his stables, which housed the single greatest number of cattle in the country and had never been cleaned, until the time of the great hero Heracles. Family Augeas's lineage varies in the sources: he was said to be either the son of Helios either by Nausidame or Iphiboe, or of Eleios, or of Poseidon, or of Phorbas and Hyrmine. In the latter account, Augeas was probably the brother of Actor, Tiphys and Diogeneia. His children were Epicaste, Phyleus, Agamede, Agasthenes, and Eurytus. Mythology The fifth Labour of Heracles (Hercules in Latin) was to clean the Augean stables. Eurystheus intended this assignment both as humiliating (rather than impressive, like the previous labours) and as impossible, since the livestock were divinely healthy (immortal) and therefore produced an enormous quantity of dung. Those stables had not been cleaned in over thirty years, and 3,000 cattle lived there. However, Heracles succeeded by rerouting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to wash out the filth.