# Augean stables

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/augean-stables
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

The stables where King Augeas kept his vast herd.

## Examples

- Cleaning the messy basement felt like cleaning the Augean stables.
- Organizing this huge, messy warehouse is like cleaning the Augean stables.
- The new manager realized that fixing the company's corrupt accounting system would be like cleaning the Augean stables.
- The new principal had to clean the Augean stables of the school's outdated filing system which had been ignored for over thirty years.
- The politician promised to reform the deeply entrenched bureaucracy, a task that many observers likened to the monumental effort of cleansing the Augean stables.

## Origin

From Augean (“pertaining to Augeas”) + stables. Augeas was a legendary king of Elis in Greek mythology who owned numerous divine cattle (3,000 head, according to some later retellings) which produced a huge amount of dung in stables that had not been cleaned for over 30 years. The cleaning of the stables was the fifth of the twelve Labours of Hercules, which Hercules achieved by rerouting the Alpheus and Peneus rivers through them.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.