AUGEAS

augeas, or augeias, in greek legend, a son of helios, the sun-god, and king of the epeians in elis. he possessed an immense wealth of herds, including twelve bulls sacred to helios, and white as swans. eurystheus imposed upon heracles the task of clearing out all his stalls unaided in one day. this he did by turning the rivers alpheus and peneus through them. augeas had promised him a tenth of the herd, but refused this, alleging that heracles had acted only in the service of eurystheus. heracles thereupon sent an army against him, and, though at first defeated, finally slew augeas and his sons. apollodorus ii. 5, 7; pindar, _olympia_, xi, 24; diodorus iv. 13; theocritus, _idyll_ 25. auger (from the o. eng. _nafu-gar_, nave-borer; the original initial n having been lost, as in "adder," through a confusion in the case of a preceding indefinite article), a tool for boring (q.v.) or drilling.