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In Greek mythology, the Erymanthian Boar was a vicious creature that lived on Mt. Erymanthus, Arcadia. The Boar was also sent by Apollo to kill the youth Adonis, a favorite of Aphrodite, for revenge on her, as she had blinded his mortal son, Erymanthus because he had stumbled upon her bathing.
Heracles' fourth labour was to capture the Boar. On the way there, Heracles visited Pholus, a kind centaur and old friend. Heracles ate with him and asked for wine; Pholus had only one jar of wine, a gift from Dionysus to all the centaurs on Mt Erymanthus. Heracles convinced him to open it, and the smell attracted the other centaurs, who attacked, angry that their wine had been opened. Heracles shot at them with his poisonous arrows, and the centaurs retreated to Chiron's cave.
Pholus was curious why the arrows caused so much death, and picked one up but dropped it, and the arrow stabbed his feet, poisoning him. A stray arrow hit Chiron as well, but Chiron was immortal, although he still felt the pain. Chiron's pain was so great, he volunteered to give up his immortality, and take the place of Prometheus. Prometheus' torturer, the eagle, continued its torture on Chiron, so Herakles shot it dead with an arrow. The tale of the Centaurs sometimes appears in other parts of the twelve labours, as does the freeing of Prometheus.
Herakles had visited Chiron to gain advice on how to catch the boar, and Chiron had told him to drive it into thick snow, which he proceeded to do. Having sucessfully caught it, he bound it and took it back to Eurystheus who was frightened and begged Heracles to get rid of the beast; Heracles obliged.
Origin
When the sun is in the sign of Virgo, it sits directly above the constellation Centaurus. The greeks considered that the centaur Chiron, who was accidentally poisoned and died due to Herakles, while herakles took a detour from hunting the Erymanthian Boar, was put in the sky as a mark of pity.
The constellation Lupus is next after Centaurus in the sun's transit, and was to the Greeks an arbitrary hunted animal (Therion)- it became a wolf under the Romans. Centaurus appears to have fired an arrow, the constellation Sagitta, towards Aquila, the eagle that tortured Prometheus, thus appearing to release Prometheus from his torment. Centaurus is also under the ecliptic, and thus considered to be in the underworld.
Erymantias is a mountain, and is nearby to another, Pholus, the name given to another incidental centaur.
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