Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

After Augeas broke the wage-bargain for the cleaning of the stables and banished Heracles and Phyleus, Heracles later gathered an army of Arcadian volunteers (and allies) and marched on Elis. Apollodorus places this among the hero’s later campaigns. Augeas had as allies the Molionidae—Eurytus and Cteatus, twin sons of Actor (or of Poseidon) and Molione, often described as double-bodied or invincible in joint strength—who commanded the Elean horse. On the first attempt Heracles fell sick; the Molionidae pressed the attack and killed many of his men, including (in some lists) the Argonaut Iphicles’ circle of support. When Heracles recovered, he ambushed the Molionidae at Cleonae as they were going to the Isthmian games as sacred envoys (or returning from sacrifice), and slew them—an act that later brought him into conflict with their cousin or protector Augeas’s circle and with Corinthian sacred law in some tellings. He then took Elis, killed Augeas, and gave the kingdom to Phyleus, who had testified for him and been exiled. The war settles the broken oath of the fifth labor in blood and restores Phyleus. From the victory and the spoils Heracles is said to have marked out the sanctuary at Olympia and instituted games—treated in the next entry—so that the Elian campaign becomes both revenge and the hinge of a Panhellenic cult foundation.