The sixth labour of Heracles was to best the man-eating birds who each possessed great beaks of bronze and feathers made of metal that they could launch their victims. The birds had bred considerably in Lake Stymphalia, a lake in Arcadia, which was mostly a swamp impossible for humans to trudge far without falling in. They terrorised the countryside and the nearby towns with their destructive capabilities.

Heracles, due to the swamp’s geography, could not travel far enough to deal with the birds and was thus in a soupy situation. Luckily, the ever-observant and wise Athena assisted the demigod by giving him a rattle originally devised by Hephaestus that scared the birds into the air. Heracles used his bow to eliminate a hefty amount of the birds, causing the rest to flee and never return.