The Labours of Alcides

The Erymanthian Boar

The crows cuervos habían estado en lo cierto: Odin, once he heard that they and the mortal brat had helped against the hydra, had been so enraged that he wanted to order the destruction of Tebas, the slaying of the boy and the firing of both crows. He would have,if it hadn't been for two things: Alcides admired it had been his fault for having accepted their help and begged not to held his companions accountable, and Shiva seemed to have been impressed for what had happened. The Hindu chief even pointed out that, due to the crab's attack, the circumstances for the task had become unfair, as he was supposed to only fight the hydra. If the other creature hadn't intervened, Alcides might not have had to need the help of the trio.

Reluctantly, Odin decided to simply give the youth an extra task, and invalidated the one of the hydra. At Alcides' request, he didn't fire the crows, and they were allowed to keep watching over him (they wouldn't say thank you, however, and might have rather preferred to return to their boss' side, but they decided to stay quiet) and gave him his next task: capturing yet another dangerous beast, the Erymanthian boar, but this time, he had to bring it alive.

Mount Erymanthos is a mount in northern Greece, the coldest part of the country. The boar had taken this place as his home, and, just like the other creatures, it had been eating its humans habitants.

Now, you might wonder: what is so dangerous about a boar ? Specially compared to the first two beasts. Well, if you wonder that, then you know nothing about boars: they might look like simply hairy pigs with tusks, but they are fierce creatures.

The Greeks did well in fearing them, as they had been terrorized by such beasts for ages, whether they were male or female. Heroes like Theseus, Atalanta, Peleus (father of Achilles himself) and others had to deal with such beings. The good Ares, who had lead the attack against Thebes, had them as his sacred animal (tho, if you have seen the god, you might know he doesn't have such a bad temper). It was even said that once, angered as Aphrodite preferred to be with  Adonis instead of him, Ares had send the beast to slay the man. It was said, but this is a human invention.

Boars are aggressive, usually choosing to attack instead of running away. They are beings that will eat anything, being a danger for farmers who might as well be part of their meal. You often need a whole pack of dogs and weapons specifically designed to slay them in order to safely hunt them. Why? Quite simple: if you stab them with a spear, the spiteful beast will simply go through it to get you. With their huge tusks, they can gut any unfortunate being unfortunate enough to cross their paths. And that's just a common boar, of course: the biggest ones can weight around 300 kilograms.

The beasts the first heroes fought were twice as big. The one Alcides has to find was at least thrice as big. The issue was not only that he couldn't slay it: he had to return with it while it remained alive. The hero had hunted some before, while he still lived in Thebes, and knew quite well that it wasn't going to be an easy task.

As in the other two places, people were absolutely terrified of the creature, and no one dared to go with the hero. The villagers of the town near the mount gave him a few provisions, as the boar would eat their crops and no one dared to stop it, and wished him good luck, but began to prefer a funeral pyre for his remains.

That task took weeks. The boar, tho huge, was good at hiding. And, besides that, having to get it alive means he wouldn't risk hitting it in the head, as he still couldn't really control his strength, or using the arrows against it least he ended the beast's life. So, all he had left was trying to trap it. But alas, the pig was too smart to fall for those traps.

"You haven't even seen the damn pig!" One of the crows complained

"It has more brains than you!" Complained the other one
"I have only found its droppings..." and every week, it got colder. Winter was coming...

Wait, winter ! Walking in the snow wasn't an easy task, both for humans and creatures of the forest. The mount's peak was covered in snow, and because of the cold, it was quite thick. If he managed to get the boar up there, it would be easier to capture him.

He still had the bow, and several arrows. Alcides decided that lighting them up with fire again would do.

"Don't even think we will carry them!"  Both crows complained

"Oh don't worry, I will do it "instead of a trap, he tried something a bit different: doggie and throwing in some buckets of water from a nearby river, he made a mud hole big enough for the boar to fit (or so he expected ).Alcides couldn't dig any deeper least he got stuck himself. Then, he went out to hide.

Pigs and boats have something in common: they both love mud baths. Because of his size, this boar couldn't find one that could fit him. Asides from his side, the beast was a common animal: son of a boar , grand child of a boar . While he knew about human traps, for him, a mud bath was just that. Even better, this one at least covered half of his body.

When Alcides saw it, he admired he was stunned, even if the hydra and the lion had also been huge: the boar was the same size as the war carts that they in Thebes. From snout to tail, it was about six meters long, and it stood four meters tall, with big, hairy legs. His body was covered in thick black hair, and he had several sword, AED and arrow scars, with some of the former stuck on his body. He was missing one of his eyes, which probably went missing when it was a piglet. His tusks were as long as Alcides' arms, tho curved. Oh that boar would have given an amazing feast...but he had to get it alive.

"Well, it's there now, so jump on him!" The white crow suggested.

"It's a fast beast..." mumbled Alcides, as it usually went away before he could even catch a glimpse. So he decided to stick to his plan: the hero threw a flaming arrow next to the pig and yelled as loudly as he could. The boar, quite confused, decided to run instead of charging, as he didn't really get what was going on and anything that dared to attack him was either very dumb, or would be able to beat him, and he'd rather find the second one later.

Alcides put out the arrows as he went by them, to avoid setting the forest on fire. He made sure not to target the pig and the trees, but the boar was getting rid of them as it ran anyways. That's how he got the pig to get into the peak as it was snowing, making the snow extra thick.

In any case, that would have been bad news for the boar, as his size made it quite a task to walk on the snow. Every step was draining his energy, to the point that for every one he took, he felt like it was ten. Moving his legs to take one started to tire the boar more and more, until it collapsed quite tired. This technique would often be used for primitive humans to hunt, but luckily for the boar, Alcides wasn't planning to eat him.

"Sorry, pal. Rest up a bit "Alcides apologized. Despite his dangerousness, the boar wasn't like his first two targets, simply being a wild animal driven by instinct. The hero turned the boar around to tie its legs with some ropes he had brought, and once he was done, Alcides offered it some water. The poor animal was so tired that it accepted  the drink without attempting to bite off a finger or two.

The people of nearby towns celebrated as they that their swine neighbor was being carried around by the redhead. Many people offered to organize a feast, but Alcides had to turn them down. On any case, everyone was grateful that the hero was taking it away. As he walked by, many people asked the youth about the hunt, and he tried to tell them as honestly as he could, tho he was in a rush and couldn't explain some things.

The neighbors of the mountain saved the hero's story word by word. Of course, to add some excitement and drama, or at least to make it longer, they added the tale of an old centaur and a scramble Alcides had against the first one's kin over a wine. This was to explain how he came up with his idea for the snow, tho some said that Chiron, half brother to the eldest six (well, seven) olympians gave him this advice.

Oh, what humans will come up with to make a story longer...of course, the boar fights were very necessary for this story, so don't judge, eh ?

The creature had a happy ending, in case anyone cares : the god Ares, impressed by how fierce he was, decided to keep it as a pet, and it helped that boars were sacred to him. Of course, some gods were disappointed as they expected the animal to make a final feast, but the war god had already asked his half-brother, Hephaestus, to make him a collar to take out his new pet for a walk.