In Greek mythology, the Erymanthian boar was a monstrous wild creature — described as shaggy, tameless, of vast weight, and with foaming jaws — that haunted Mount Erymanthus in Arcadia and ravaged the surrounding land, especially the territory of Psophis. Its capture was the fourth labour of Heracles, who was ordered to bring the beast alive to Eurystheus in Mycenae. The boar was variously called Tegeaean, Maenalusian, or Erymanthian by ancient authors. It is closely linked with Artemis and the "Mistress of the Animals," whom such ravaging boars were sent to serve as instruments of divine displeasure.
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I.Description
In Greek mythology, the Erymanthian boar (Greek: ὁ Ἐρυμάνθιος κάπρος; Latin: aper Erymanthius) was a mythical creature described as "shaggy and wild," "tameless," and a "boar" of "vast weight" with "foaming jaws."
It inhabited the glens of Lampeia beside the vast marsh of Erymanthus and would emerge from the thick-wooded, cypress-bearing heights of Mount Erymanthus to terrorize the groves of Arcady and damage the land of Psophis. Ancient authors disagreed on its origin, calling the beast either Tegeaean, Maenalusian, or Erymanthian.
II.Mythology
The fourth labour of Heracles required him to capture the Erymanthian boar alive and bring it to Eurystheus in Mycenae. Heracles pursued the creature by chasing it with shouts out of a thicket, then drove it into deep snow where he trapped and bound it in chains. He carried the exhausted animal on his left shoulder back to Mycenae and cast it down at the entrance to the assembly.
When King Eurystheus saw Heracles arriving with the boar on his shoulders, he was terrified and hid himself in a bronze vessel.
The inhabitants of Cumae claimed to possess the boar's tusks in the sanctuary of Apollo, though this assertion lacked credible support. In Arcadian tradition the creature was a fearsome wild animal sacred to the Mistress of the Animals and associated with Artemis on Mount Erymanthos: when the goddess was displeased with a region, she would dispatch a raging boar to devastate the farmers' fields — as also happened in the story of Meleager and the Calydonian boar.
III.Cultural depictions
The boar features across classical literature, listed chronologically from Sophocles' Trachiniae (5th century BC) through Byzantine texts such as Tzetzes' Chiliades (12th century AD). Among the ancient and later sources that mention the creature are Apollonius Rhodius, Ovid, Virgil, Seneca, Pausanias, and Pseudo-Apollodorus.
The creature has also appeared in modern media, including the video games Hades II and Assassin's Creed Odyssey.