The Erymanthian Boar was a gigantic, savage wild pig that ravaged the slopes of Mount Erymanthus in Arcadia — the monstrous quarry of the fourth Labour of Heracles, who was charged with bringing the beast back alive. Its capture is one of the most vivid of the hero's twelve trials, remembered as much for its comic aftermath as for the feat itself.
The Terror of Erymanthus
The boar was a beast of enormous size and ferocity, with great tusks and a foul temper, that came down from the wooded heights of Mount Erymanthus to lay waste the surrounding fields and terrorise the people of the region. Wild boars were genuinely feared in the ancient world — fast, powerful and lethal at close quarters — and this one was a monster among them, a single animal that could destroy crops, livestock and men with equal ease.
The Fourth Labour
King Eurystheus commanded Heracles to capture the boar alive — a far harder task than simply killing it. On the way to the hunt, Heracles stopped with the centaur Pholus, and the famous battle with the drunken centaurs broke out (a tragedy that ended with the accidental death of the wise centaur Chiron). Coming at last to the boar, Heracles is said to have driven it out of its thickets with great shouts, chased it relentlessly up into the deep mountain snow, and there, as the exhausted beast floundered in a drift, sprang upon it, bound it in chains, and hauled it onto his shoulders.
The Boar and the Coward King
The Labour's most famous moment came at its end. When Heracles strode back into Mycenae with the enormous living boar slung over his shoulders, King Eurystheus was so terrified at the sight of the snarling beast that he leapt into a great bronze storage jar (a pithos) and hid, peeping out and begging Heracles to take the monster away. The image of the cowardly king cowering in a jar while the hero stood with the boar became a favourite of ancient vase-painters — a moment of comedy in the midst of the heroic labours.
The Captured Beast
The Erymanthian Boar endures as one of the twelve great trials of Heracles and a symbol of brute wild ferocity mastered by heroic strength and cunning. Its tale captures the particular flavour of Heracles's labours: monstrous danger, real skill, and a streak of humour, the hero so mighty that the very king who commanded him fled in terror from the prize.
Heracles caught the unkillable boar alive — and the king who sent him to do it dived into a jar to hide from his own reward.