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Augean stables

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Augean stables

held 3,000 oxen, uncleaned for 30 years; Hercules’ fifth labor: washes out dung by diverting a river. [Gk. and Rom. Myth.: Hall, 149]
See: Filth
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
Knowing full well that it is tainted, the best thing for the IPL's holding company -- the BCCI -- would be to withhold this year's tourney and come back after doing a Hercules and clean up the Augean stables by 2015.
The m dmi Party (P) leader is aware that to large sections, especially among the subaltern classes, he is something of a messiah, who is bent on cleansing the Augean stables of politics.
As part of the failed bid to bring the 2018 World Cup to England, Triesman spent countless days dealing with FIFA, an organization which he believes needs a metaphorical clearing out of the Augean Stables if it is to repair its tarnished image, the report said.
One such challenge, the Vatican Bank, is equivalent to cleaning up the Augean stables. It is enough to mention the words "Vatican" and "bank" in the same sentence to start a cascade of jokes about comic-opera ineptness and skullduggery.
Singapore, always quick to restore order on its limited territory, had no choice but to clean up its fiscal Augean stables.
The question is who will win the election in Mayaand whether the winners will be able to restore calm, stick to Bulgariaas policy of fiscal austerity and finally clean the Augean stables of corporate Bulgaria.
Fans say Benedict was a great "teaching pope" who also presided over a quiet cleansing of the church's Augean stables, promoting a financial glasnost, committing the church to reform in the fight against clerical sexual abuse, and challenging the careerist and self-aggrandizing culture in the Vatican--most notably, of course, by being willing to renounce the pinnacle of power himself.
We hope, though, that when the cardinals gather to pick Benedict's successor, they consider someone able and willing to clean out the Augean Stables at the Vatican itself.
Hopefully, they will soon discover they are not and the quicker the Commissioner cleans out the Augean stables, the better for all concerned.
"Today, officials who genuinely want to fight corruption, including some at the very top, are often in a minority and lack the power to clean out those Augean Stables," he said, referring to the daunting task of Greek mythology.
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