Augeas
In Greek mythology, Augeas, whose name means "bright", was king of Elis and father of Epicaste. Some ancient authors say that Augeas was one of the Argonauts. He is known for his stables, which housed the single greatest number of cattle in the country and had never been cleaned, until the time of the great hero Heracles. The derivative adjective augean came to signify a challenging task, typically improving or fixing something that is currently in a bad condition.
Family
Augeas's lineage varies in the sources: he was said to be either the son of Helios either by Nausidame or Iphiboe, or of Eleios, or of Poseidon, or of Phorbas and Hyrmine. In the latter account, Augeas was probably the brother of Actor, Tiphys and Diogeneia. His children were Epicaste, Phyleus, Agamede, Agasthenes, and Eurytus.Mythology
The fifth Labour of Heracles was to clean the Augean stables. Eurystheus intended this assignment both as humiliating and as impossible, since the livestock were divinely healthy and therefore produced an enormous quantity of dung. Three thousand cattle lived in the stables, which had not been cleaned in over thirty years. However, Heracles succeeded by rerouting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to wash out the filth.Augeas reacted angrily because he had promised Heracles one tenth of his cattle if the job was finished in one day. He refused to honour the agreement, and Heracles killed him after completing the tasks. Heracles gave Augeas' kingdom to Phyleus, Augeas' son, who had been exiled for supporting Heracles against his father.
According to the odes of the poet Pindar, Heracles then founded the Olympic Games:
Eurystheus discounted the success of this labour because the rushing waters had done the work of cleaning the stables and because Heracles was paid. Stating that Heracles still had seven labours to do, Eurystheus then sent Heracles to defeat the Stymphalian Birds.