After hunting down the copper-legged deer, which lasted for an entire year, Heracles did not rest long. Eurystheus gave him a new order: Heracles had to kill the Erymanthean boar. This boar, possessing a monstrous strength, lived on the Erymanthean Mountain and ravaged the lands of the city-state of Psophis. It did not spare humans either and killed them with its' monstrous tusks. Heracles went to the Erymanthean Mountain. As he did, he visited the wise centaur Pholus. Respectfully did Pholus greet the great son of Zeus and made a feast for him. During the feast, the centaur opened a great vessel of wine to treat the hero better. The wine's aroma spread-out widely. Other centaurs sensed this aroma as well. They were very enraged at Pholus for opening this vessel. This wine did not belong to Pholus alone, but belonged to all of the centaurs. The centaurs raced to Pholus' home and ambushed him and Heracles when the latter pair were feasting merrily together, having decorated their heads with ivy wreaths. The centaurs did not impress Heracles. He quickly jumped up from his seat and began to throw huge burning brands at the attackers. The centaurs fled and Heracles shot them down with his poisonous arrows. Heracles pursued them to the very Malea. There the centaurs' hid at Heracles' friend, Chiron, the wisest of the centaurs. Heracles burst into the cavern after them. In wrath, he fired his bow; the arrow flew through the air and hit one of the centaurs in the knee. Heracles struck not a foe, but his friend Chiron. A great despair overwhelmed the hero, when he saw just whom he had wounded. Heracles hurried to cleanse and tourniquet the wound of his friend, but nothing could help. Heracles knew that the wound from an arrow, covered in hydra's bile, is untreatable. Chiron knew as well that he was looking at a painful death. So not to suffer from the wound, he voluntarily descended into the dark kingdom of Hades.
In deep sadness, Heracles did leave Chiron and soon reached the Erymanthean Mountain. There, in a deep forest, he found the great boar and scared it out with his cries. Heracles chased the boar for a long time and finally he chased it into the deep snow on top of the mountain. The boar be-came stuck in snow, and Heracles, jumping onto it, tied it up and brought it to Mycenae. When Eurystheus saw the monstrous boar, from fear he hid in a deep bronze vessel.