Sixth Labor - Hercules (Heracles - Herakles)

Apollodorus Labor 6 - Stymphalian Birds

This is a retelling of the sixth of twelve labors the Greek hero Hercules performed for Eurystheus

Getting help from a goddess is not the same thing as getting help from one's nephew (Iolaus). Thus, when in the completion of the third labor, Hercules had to prevail upon Artemis to let him take the Cerynitian hind to his master Eurystheus, the labor counted as Hercules' alone. Of course, Artemis didn't exactly help. She just didn't hinder him further.

In the course of the sixth labor, Hercules was at a loss, until that goddess-who-helps-heroes, Athena, came to his assistance. Imagine Hercules in the woods, surrounded by a great cacophany of frightened birds cawing and screeching at each other and at him, trying to drive him away -- or at least mad. They almost succeeded, too, until Athena gave him advice and a set of castanets. The advice was to scare the birds away with the sound of the Hephaestus-forged brazen castanets clicking on a nearby mountain, and then, pick them off, as they emerge from their sheltering forest in Arcadia. Hercules followed the advice, and so completed the sixth task set forth by Eurystheus.

Birds removed, Hercules was halfway finished with his ten tasks in twelve years as set forth by the Pythian.

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