Eggcorn Forum

The fifth of Hercules’ twelve labors was the cleaning of the Augean stables. Augeas, King of Elis, had accumulated a legendary collection of cattle, and, with the cattle, a feed-lot-sized mountain of manure. Augeas contracted with Hercules Waste Removal, Inc., to clean out the stables. As an incentive, he offered the company CEO, Hercules, a tenth of the cattle if he could do the job by himself in one day. Hercules completed the task before the deadline by diverting the channels of two rivers into the stables. This remarkable feat ultimately contributed to the bankruptcy of HWR, Inc., when Augeas welched on the deal and the company was sued by Greek Department of the Marine Environment for befouling half the Mediterranean Sea.

Or something like that.

If you think I’m confused, what about the thousands of people who describe the fifth labor of Hercules as the cleansing of the Aegean stables? Granted, a few of these folk may have used the phrase correctly: the term “Aegean” is often associated with the Greek peninsula (“Aegean peninsula,” “Aegean civilization”). But even this rationale has problems–the closest association of the word is with the Aegean Sea that lies between Greece and Turkey. Elis, where the stables were located, is on the western side of Greece, the part that faces the Ionian Sea.

Three examples:

Web bio: “He wrote in a personal journal that I only saw after his death, that it would be his preference, like Hercules’ task to clean the Aegean Stables, to take a great river of energy and wash the students clean all at once.”

Blog entry: “ Those of us who have been working in Aegean stables, not unlike the senate, have always been shovel ready.”

Comment on online article of The Guardian: “But whatever (yet again), I will NOT vote for a republican until they have cleaned out their Aegean Stables.”