Augeas

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Noun

Augeas - (Greek mythology) the mythical Greek king who for 30 years did not clean his stables which contained his vast herd of cattle

Greek mythology - the mythology of the ancient Greeks

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He is entertained there by Polyxenus and receives a mixing bowl as a gift; the story of Trophonius and Agamedes and Augeas then follows.

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The two others were Diores, son of Amarynces, and Polyxenus, son of King Agasthenes, son of Augeas.

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But the ancient Greek myth describing Hercules mucking out ox stables for King Augeas is hardly populist.

Nelson's Column: Theresa May is doomed, condemned by her own address to the nation; There is a pivotal moment in every PM's career when you know the game is up. Sunday Mirror Political Editor Nigel Nelson says for Theresa May it arrived on Wednesday night

Let us, therefore, clean the stable of Augeas. But to avoid behaving like shameless idiots we must first arrest the murderer that boasted on Astra Radio that he killed innocent Turkish Cypriots and all those well-known gangsters of Eoka B for their horrific crimes in August 1974.

Cleaning the stable of Augeas

They appear only when necessary, as plot cruxes and facilitators: the gates of Troy, too narrow for the hollow horse; Augeas' stables, large enough for more than 1000 cattle, crusted with 30 years of dung, waiting to be cleaned by Hercules; Odysseus' wedding bed, built into its olive tree, living and immovable.

A lost cause

In Greek mythology, Hercules cleaned the filthy quarters housing the teeming cattle of King Augeas in a single day.

U.S. presidential campaign slogans: in other words..

In Greek mythology, the fifth labour of Heracles was to clean Augeas's stables, unwashed for nearly 30 years.