6th Labour of Hercules: Slay the Stymphalian Birds

Greek Hero Hercules
slaying the Stymphalian Birds.

According to the myth of Greek Hero Hercules, the 6th labour was to slay the Stymphalian Birds residing in the Stymphalian lake. The Stymphalian Birds were man-eating birds covered with sharp metallic feathers. Using their feathers they could lunch attack to their victims and in companion with their poisonous dung the result was lethal. They were pets of the Greek god of war Ares.There they bred quickly and swarmed over the Stymphalida lake, destroying crops and killing people from nearby cities.


When Hercules arrived in the area where the Birds were living, he tried to reach their nest. However, he ground would not support his weight and he had issues reaching the nest. Greek goddess of Wisdom Athena, gave Heracles a rattle or clatter which the Greek god blacksmiths Hephaestus had made especially for the occasion to make the birds fly. He shook the rattle and the birds frightened started to flying around. Hercules knowing that it will be hard to kill them, he used the arrows that were tipped with poisonous blood from Hyrdra.  According to the Myth, some of the birds survived flew far away, on an island in the Euxine Sea. Heracles brought some of the slain birds to Eurystheus as proof of his success.