The Sagittarius Archetype | Mutable Fire
Characters you know by nicknames or first names alone: Katniss, Bilbo, Gandalf, and now The Ghoul are all contributing to our modern understanding of this archetype.
When I describe the core building blocks of each archetype, I am not starting with some Babylonians on a hillside at night contemplating constellations and moving forward. I will mention sources for the archetype, but not go into much detail. I’ll include links if you want to follow up. I don’t think all that’s crucial to writers who are writing characters today.
We know the symbols and metaphors that build the archetype change. We do not put centaurs in too many stories, but we have not abandoned the bow and arrow or the horse. The cowboy hats of the Americas and wide-brim hats in general—meant to keep the rain off when you travel— are now a symbol for Sagittarius.
The personality traits represented by the Horse in the Chinese zodiac certainly align with Sagittarius. There are thousands of associations, but we know the archetype when we see it, even if cultures do not call it Sagittarius.
If you are unsure about the distinction between archetypes, stereotypes, and tropes, read Archetype Astrology for Writers, Directors, Actors, and Audiences.
Sagittarius Genres and Themes
Sagittarian story themes focus on self-mastery and fighting cynicism, tyranny, dishonesty, and dishonor. These stories are often about developing the courage to do what is right after figuring out exactly what that might be.
Sagittarius genres tend to be travel and road-trip stories, thrillers, westerns, adventure, science fiction, and fantasy. The settings for Sagittarius stories can have wide-open vistas (and often do) or cramped quarters below a submarine deck. The point is that, in some way, the setting is wild or dangerous — or both.
Of course, there are horror, mystery, and romance that may feature a Sagittarian character, but these genres often incorporate themes from other signs. The usual tropes for a Sagittarius character in a different sign’s theme are to function as a jester, sidekick, or guru. Maybe they just have a big mouth.
In other words, they might get murdered in the first 10 minutes of a Scorpio story because they confronted a murderer with the truth (while they are alone out in the middle of nowhere) and said they plan to bring the killer to justice. Good job, Sagittarius.
Sagittarius Character Tropes & Stereotypes
Until recently, Sagittarius has appeared in most stories as male, but not always. That is how the archetype was designed, first by male astrologers and then by patriarchal warrior societies.
If you want to write an unforgettable Sagittarius character, male or female, you have to look past the way people, who weren’t culturally perceptive enough to know the difference between archetypes and stereotypes, first conceived it.
When I get to the section below on case studies, I’ll talk about Eowyn in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings as the iconic female Sagittarius example.
SAGITTARIUS PERSONALITY TRAITS | GO BIG OR GO HOME
Big & Lucky
Because Jupiter rules Sagittarius, everything about a Sagittarius character will be larger than life. They usually have strong voices, loud, hearty laughs, and are almost always big and tall; these characters don’t blend into a crowd.
They are often portrayed as immense individuals. Think Brienne of Tarth (A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin), Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien), Hagrid (The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling), or Cormoran Strike (Cormoran Strike series, Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling).
Of course, writers can play with this. Sagittarians Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins are, respectively, very big and very small, but both are big personalities, and their presence is strongly felt throughout the entire story. Sagittarians Brienne of Tarth and Arya Stark follow the same pattern.
If you worshipped Jupiter correctly, you would be luckier than anyone who worshipped any other god. A Sagittarius’s luck often starts as catastrophic and becomes ridiculously good—no middle ground.
Katniss Everdeen is the perfect example of that in the first Hunger Games book. Mat Cauthon, from the later books of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, is another example. Of course, luck benefits from self-confidence, and Sagittarius has that in spades.
In fact, a writer of the Sagittarius character has to write fantasy or farce or try to walk the line and stop while it’s still marginally believable.
My favorite example of Jupiter’s luck appears in Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of The Hobbit. Bilbo (Sagittarius) and the Dwarves, for 99% of three movies, avoid broken bones, crushing, falling, being eaten, being shot, and death. Gandalf (also Sagittarius) and Bilbo survive the entire adventure, of course. These characters are SO lucky in the children’s book; it is as silly as Tolkien meant it to be.
People talk about living a “small life.” When Jupiter travels through any area of your life, things expand. You can get a raise or a windfall, but you can also get fat or end up with a thousand things to do. There is nothing small about a Sagittarius life.
Bold & Blunt
Sagittarius is on the cusp of introversion and extraversion. Fire signs are extroverted, but mutable signs, not so much. Sagittarians hate wandering around a party making small talk, so they’d rather grab a lampshade and dance on the table and—like all centaurs everywhere—They’ll drink too much and talk too much.
They will embarrass you and themselves by telling all your secrets, and theirs too.
They have the foot-in-mouth disease of blurting out the truth at inconvenient, uncomfortable moments, probably at the top of their lungs. Think Hagrid, again.
There is little to say about this. This is the character who starts their hero’s journey by opening their big mouth and telling off a manager or customer and getting fired.
This is the best friend who tells someone their coat smells, or they have mascara on the tip of their nose. This is the character who tells their friend the fact that it’s a mistake to marry that man the night before the wedding.
This is the character who suddenly spouts the most uncomfortable truth about another to their face, resulting in both of them standing there in shocked silence.
Dexterity in speech starts in Gemini, but Sagittarius is known for everything from using words to evade commitment to the off-the-cuff, inspirational throw-yourself-into-battle speech. When a Sagittarius character speaks the blunt truth to another in a story, the audience might say aloud, “Facts!” or “She’s not wrong.”
Like Gemini, Sagittarius is supposed to master skilled speech. One of the Gemini and Sagittarius lessons blended together is what might be called “right speech” by the Buddhists.
You say the right thing at the right time to the right person, and you don’t abuse your skills. Truth + kindness. Not so easy to master.
Cheerful, Optimistic, & Easy-Going
“We Cowpokes, we take it as it comes,” says Sagittarian Cooper Howard, and then he repeats it when he is The Ghoul in Fallout (Amazon Prime Video). He means it differently each time, but he is a (mainly) flexible character playing with the cards he is handed.
Howard used to be a very easy-going and optimistic guy before circumstances changed him into the dark Sagittarius villain he is now.
Take Jovial optimism and add the mutability of this sign, and you have someone who gets along with everyone, as long as they don’t push for too much commitment or ask them to do something unethical or betray them.
Most stories are about people learning, changing, adapting to circumstances, and overcoming the lucky or unlucky odds and their own weaknesses. Everyone needs a little mutability, but there is always the risk that people will take advantage of you. Whether you can hold onto your soul when you stop being easy-going is great drama
.
Hilarious
Jupiter, being a son of Saturn, was a pretty serious guy, so how did Sagittarius get to be considered the funniest sign? It’s more about Jupiter making the people happy. If you are aligned with Jupiter and have his approval, you will be both lucky and light-hearted. The word jovial comes from the root jov (from Jupiter).
The idea of the good humor of Sagittarius is something that evolved, not just from having the favor of Jupiter, but also from the happiness that results from being an honorable person, having immense good luck, being open-minded about people who are different from you, keeping a positive outlook (aka known as “keeping your sense of humor”), and also from those stories of clever centaurs drinking too much wine and partying like it’s 1201 BCE.
If you are deeply knowledgable about human nature and the absurdities of life, you can’t help but laugh.
Intolerant of Trivia or Foolishness
Foolishness should be differentiated from playfulness here. Sagittarians love to fool around, as long as it’s witty, artful, or meaningful. But show a lack of considered thought or an obsession with meaningless conversation, and you will wonder where they went.
Ethical and Truthful
The thing Sagittarius characters do best, in my opinion, is help give people the courage to speak the truth and face the consequences of that. A main character in a theme that involves calling out fraud, lies, and corruption with radical honesty, or a story where the truth changes history, is often a Sagittarius.
The Sagittarius hero is an ethical character who stands up — at some point — in a legislature, or board room, church meeting, staff meeting, or in the face of the president or king—and tells the uncomfortable truth.
Putting your life and livelihood on the line because of your principles is a BIG choice, and courage is Sagittarius’s middle name.
These protagonists have no use for half measures, so no white lies for them. They seek and tell the truth and nothing but the truth, even if it hurts. They can’t help themselves.
An Aventurer of the Mind and Body
Many Sagittarian characters start as professors or armchair explorers and then become adventurers. Those armchair-to-action-adventure freedom-loving characters appeal to all of us readers, and writers love to include them.
Sagittarius is the least extroverted of the three fire signs, because of all that BIG smarts. They can’t talk to that many people. They may be a gregarious comedian in public, but unlike Leo and Aries, they don’t have a long list of close friends in their own town.
The ninth house rules culture, foreign travel, philosophy, psychology, religion, higher education teaching, and knowledge. You can’t talk to just anyone about topics you have read everything ever written on. While this house does rule higher education, most Sagittarians—being fiercely independent—are self-taught.
In Tolkien’s book, The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins was well known for studying all the time. He pored over his books and maps and avoided everyone but Frodo. He loved the elves and wanted to know all about them.
He was a little guy, so he never seriously considered going to see these things or meet the elves until Gandalf practically pushed him out the door. Once on the road, however, he was quite good at adventuring, showing intelligence and bravery at every turn.
In The Lord of the Rings, he retired to Elrond’s house, probably to have someone he could talk to. For him, Rivendell and Elrond’s 6000 years of knowledge was Bilbo living his best life inside a magnificent library. It’s easy to picture Elrond gently shooing him away or distracting him with food after the hundredth question.
Languages
While Sagittarian Gandalf could speak every language in Middle-earth, including Warg, Elrond could read them all. I suspect a Sagittarius rising for Elrond.
Sagittarius loves to travel and learn languages. It seems at odds with the simple cowboy, but main character cowhands in stories are often Sagittarius. (Yes, I mean cowboy, but I am trying not to use that male label)
There may be many side cowhand characters with different sun signs, but if a cowhand suddenly makes a speech in the advanced and challenging language of Navajo — or any language other than their own, really — you have to suspect this character is a Sagittarius. One language is usually not enough to contain a Sagittarius.
A Hermit and Solo Wanderer
Many Sagittarians are solitary, especially at the beginning of their arc. Being alone gives you time to think without noisier minds around you rattling off opinions and talking about things they know nothing about.
Besides, it’s easier to read books when you are alone.
Courageous, Independent, and Defiant
This starts at “Don’t tell me what to do or where to be and when.” It doesn’t end there. As a Sagittarius character evolves, they find themselves in situations where it is hard for most people to stand up and do the right thing, but it’s the right thing to do, so they do it.
In stories, we want to see characters stand up for themselves and others, be free to say and do whatever they want, and to avoid negative consequences for this risk-taking, so, in stories, they often succeed—giving us hope for ourselves in the real world.
Outside fiction, few of those choices go unpunished, which is why it takes real courage. We know what really happens to most whistleblowers, activists, and freedom fighters.
Sagittarius characters who make speeches about freedom and take steps to protect it help us take those steps when it’s our turn because they are the right thing to do. Do the next right thing. That is a motto an evolved Sagittarius can live by. Or maybe Do what you want to do, but be ready to pay for it.
What is courage?
To spread yourself out in the world, you need freedom and independence, and for Sagittarius, those things must be defended at any cost.
An Aries is brave. Bravery is not the same as courage. Aries is fearless.
Real courage is acting when you are full of fear. It is taking action when you are fully aware of all the consequences and even know for sure that you will pay for the choices you make.
A Sagittarius is knowledgeable, so they think much more deeply about the consequences of their actions. An evolved Sagittarius might lose a leg in the fighting, but never their courage.
However, we can go further than that.
In a famous conversation between two Sagittarians in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Gandalf told Bilbo that true courage is knowing when not to take a life. Bilbo remembered this wisdom, and when he had the chance to kill Gollum, Bilbo held back. He was terrified of Gollum, but he held back.
His courage inspired Frodo’s courage later, and it changed them both. It gave the ring (greed, malice & cynicism) less of a hold on them, and it changed the course of the future for the better.
Sagittarius is a role model for courage.
A Soldier, a Fighter, A Hunter
Sagittarius characters include freedom fighters, former soldiers, and cowpokes defending their way of life. An evolved Sagittarius fights for the freedom of others, too. Sagittarius is not quiet about why s/he was fighting either. You will be told, and Sagittarius will have built an entire philosophy about it. Look for a character spouting maxims.
A reluctant warrior isn’t always a Sagittarius, but a Sagittarius is often a reluctant warrior. Why is this hero reluctant? Because Sagittarius doesn’t usually fight for the adrenaline rush like Aries, or the glory, like Leo. There must be a BIGGER reason, too.
The Sagittarius archetype is the last of the fire signs and the most evolved as a warrior. Sagittarius fights for a cause. They may have fun fighting, but they never fight for fun. Like Robin Hood, Sagittarians need a cause to fight for.
Sagittarian characters tend to be former soldiers because they value freedom too much to remain in the military for long. If your character has been in the military for decades, look at fixed signs Leo and Scorpio first. Fiery Aries is the maverick most likely to get kicked out.
Sagittarian Cormoran Strike in the mystery series by Robert Galbraith (Jo Rowling) and Cooper Howard/The Ghoul in the TV show Fallout are both former soldiers and (mostly) independent (private detective, bounty hunter) and hunters (of humans). Many people can be considered hunters. A detective hunts for bad guys, a journalist might hunt for a good story or the whole truth.
Another Sagittarian and reluctant skillful warrior off hunting in the woods— and one with her bow and arrow—is Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Katniss does not want to fight; she does not want to be the face of the resistance, yet she does what is needed.
Athletic, Agile, and a Bit Wild!
It certainly takes athletic ability to ride a horse, turn, and hit your target while moving. The Centaur is half horse, half human, and Sagittarius has a bit of the agile, wild animal about them.
They love all animals, and in every story with a strong Sagittarius character, look for the animals. When a character is set up with a dog companion or is a horse-whisperer, it awakens my Sagittarius radar.
Wild animals almost always make an appearance in a Sagittarius story. The animal can be the object of a hunt, a danger to the community, or just so big that it could unintentionally kill you. Again, we are back to thinking about the character of Hagrid.
If a character is a hunter, we should also think of Sagittarius. Gods carrying bows and arrows, like Artemis and Diana, were both hunters and protectors of animals.
Sagittarians can also be quite sexually promiscuous in stories. A Sagittarian who does not tell the truth to their partners and uses people for sex is a feature of both its immature characters and villains. Taming themselves can be their biggest challenge.
DARK SAGITTARIUS: THE VILLAINS
The Sagittarian villain is never quite as vicious as a Mars-inspired Aries or Scorpio can be, but that doesn’t mean a Sagittarius villain isn’t violent or cruel.
A character who is particularly cruel to underdogs and animals, who seeks to destroy the freedom and independence of others while keeping those things for himself or herself, can easily be a Sagittarius gone bad.
The Sagittarius will be sarcastic, sardonic, and clever. S/he will present riddles for you to solve that you can’t possibly solve and punish you when you don’t. S/he is a master of the mind game.
However, this description covers many types of villains, so keep in mind that the distinguishing motivation of the Sagittarius villain will not be ambition, greed, jealousy, revenge, despair, or the desires for attention or perfect order that motivate other villains.
The Sagittarius villain will be a former idealist who has succumbed to the darkest cynicism imaginable and is now playing an entirely selfish game.
RELATED POST: FALLOUT ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐| The Four ♐Horsemen of the Apocalypse
CHARACTER CASE STUDIES (Eowyn, Gandalf)
I have already mentioned more than half a dozen Sagittarian characters. Of all of them, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is the most complicated and probably deserves her own post. So that will come later.
I think I will stay with the well-known Eowyn and Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings.
EOWYN ♐of Rohan
“All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. But I am of the House of Eorl and not a serving-woman. I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death.”
“What do you fear, lady?” he asked.
“A cage,” she said. “To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
(Contains Spoilers) The “White Lady,” Lady Eowyn of Rohan in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, fits the Sagittarius archetype, but not the stereotype. They refer to her as the White Lady because her skin is exceptionally pale, even for Rohan. It’s not really about her race.
Eowyn fits the Lord and Lady tropes, but never descends into the tomboy stereotype typically associated with the Sagittarius archetype for women. In the example above, she speaks plainly to the future King of Gondor without hesitation.
She dismisses his words bluntly. She is defiant. She will fight for her own freedom and that of her family and nation. When she is ordered not to, she dresses as a man and goes anyway. That is as Sagittarian as it is possible to be.
I continue to see online comments calling her “selfish” and “ambitious” because she chooses to defy orders and rides out to fight. Some audiences regard it as a sin for her to seek glory in battle while protecting the homeland. No one would accuse a young man of her age, who did and said the same things, of those qualities. For him, it would be expected.
If the character were male, the focus would also be on the outcome: Eowyn, with an assist from Merry, killed the Witch King of Angmar, something only they could do because they weren’t men.
Eowyn is a woman considered “feminine” who is also a defiant, freedom-loving, and skilled warrior. Women pretending to be boys or men so they can be their true Sagittarian selves is a trope in itself. Arya does it as well in Game of Thrones.
Eowyn is a unique character built on the archetype, not a stereotype. Okay, sure, Tolkien could not resist using her to show Aragorn’s kindness and then hooking her up with Faramir after they have a slightly problematic conversation where he tells her she is wrong about everything, but he loves her anyway.
It’s definitely a scene that would be written differently by a woman, but Tolkien meant well and I don’t accept that she is ‘tamed.” She just decides to live and find her way in a post-war world, like any veteran needs to do.
And hey, Faramir is hot, and they both deserve love. I’ll overlook anything I would have written differently.
Speaking of gender-neutrality: Fire and air have been considered “masculine,” and outward-facing, and earth and water are considered “feminine” and inward-facing, but you know, fuck that.
Gandalf ♐The BIG Iconic Sagittarian
There is no better character in all of literature to use as the iconic Sagittarius than Gandalf the Grey.
There are other Sagittarians in J.R.R. Tolkien’s adventure stories: Eowyn and Bilbo come to mind, but Gandalf is the Jupiter of the story. He is a big presence in every way, and Ian McKellen was the perfect casting choice in the movies.
Tolkien’s close friend C.S. Lewis was a Sagittarius by birth and deeply interested in medieval astrology. I cannot imagine they did not discuss it.
C.S. Lewis would make his students laugh by saying, "Those born under Jupiter are apt to be loud-voiced and red-faced. It is obvious under which planet I was born!"
In the books, Gandalf was a Maiar, a larger-than-life demigod or archangel. He was sent as an Ishtar — a leader sent by the gods to inspire the “free peoples of Middle-earth” to fight for their freedom.
Mutable Fire
“I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you.”
-Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
We know Gandalf loves his fireworks, but if you look closely at that story, you will see that Gandalf has more than a passing relationship with the element of fire.
In the world of Tolkien, the “flame of Anor” is the power of creation and inspiration. Gandalf was also given Narya, the elven ring of fire, first carried by the elf lord Cirdan, to amplify Gandalf’s powers.
Read More About It
Secret Fire: The Spiritual Vision of J.R.R.Tolkien. I could only find a collectible
paperback version of this. Try your local used bookstore!
The Arrow & The Staff
Saittarius is said to be “one-pointed” and direct. Gandalf’s staff takes the place of the bow and arrow. Gandalf himself is usually straightforward — like an arrow — and men, elves, trees, horses, and hobbits are both afraid of his tongue and yet, also trust him.
He is physically bigger than all of them. He has a great booming voice when he wishes to snap someone out of an illusion that has them in its grip, and he loves to laugh. He tells Frodo and Bilbo the truth and lets them make their own decisions, and he doesn’t mince words when he thinks someone has been foolish or is wrong.
Never Suffer Fools Gladly
“Fool of a Took! Next time, throw yourself in!”
Have I mentioned people are exhausting? Sometimes Galdalf can’t take any more foolishness. He tells whoever it is his blunt truth and marches away to be alone for a while until he can master himself and come back, and in true mutable fashion, he never holds a grudge against his friends.
One of my favorite movie moments in The Lord of the Rings trilogy comes after Pippin looks into the Palantir. Gandalf starts hollering at him, turns and sees his fixed eyes, and immediately drops the loud lecture to run to cradle him in his arms and break the spell on him. Every time he yells at Pippin, he demonstrates his faith in him by assigning him a task or explaining something to him. This is the evolved Sagittarian character: truthful, blunt, perceptive, and kind.
The Wizard/Philosopher/Scholar
Gandalf also keeps running off on his own, going to research this or that, or talk to someone who might know what is going on.
He is also constantly spouting different languages, philosophy, or poetry when people need encouragement. He always knows the right thing to say and isn’t afraid to discuss the most significant topics, including death.
The Centaur
To complete the Sagittarian archetype, Gandalf rides—but does not own— the king of all horses, Shadowfax. No saddle for Shadowfax. He is a free animal of Middle-earth. To ride Shadowfax, the Wizard and horse must be as one.
AND NOW FOR ANCIENT STORYTELLING
Now let’s end with a story that tackles the Sagittarius’ central theme of mental self-mastery.
The Labors of Hercules
There is a famous story about the Twelve Labors, or tasks, of the Greek demigod Hercules.
This story, among others, strongly influenced all the archetypes as they evolved from the Babylonians through the cultures of the Middle East, India, and Hellenistic Greece to the Romans.
Backstory
Jupiter’s counterpart in Greece was Zeus. Hera was Zeus’s wife. At one point, Zeus pretended to be the husband of a mortal princess he fancied, named Alcmene so that he could have sex with her. Hercules was the result.
Hera wasn’t thrilled. She put a spell on Hercules that made him kill his own wife and children.
I mean, the murders were Hera’s fault, of course. Everybody knew that. You know how women are, I mean, what could poor Hercules do? Everyone knows it’s bad when women have power.
ANYWAY, poor, powerless, the strongest man alive, son of the top god, Hercules wasn’t killed or imprisoned. He went to Apollo, asked to be punished, and was given a to-do list.
His cousin, King Eurystheus, was appointed. He assigned Hercules (Heracles) 12 impossible tasks to atone for his crimes.
Bring me the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West!
Thus begins the hero's journey in video games everywhere.
Hercules & The Killing of the Stymphalian Birds
The influential metaphysical writer Alice Bailey aligned each of Hercules’ tasks with the lessons represented by the zodiac signs. There are, after all, twelve tasks and twelve signs, and each sign represents a stage in the soul’s journey.
We do not know how the signs aligned at the time this myth was shared, and I don’t necessarily agree that Bailey got all the alignments 100% correct.
Still, part of the beauty of using symbols in stories is that they mean different things to different people at different times while still addressing the underlying truth of human nature.
The Mission
This time, Hercules was tasked with driving off predatory birds that lived in a dark marsh on a high plateau in Greece. IN the version I like, that colossal asshole Ares raised the birds, so they were terrorizing travelers and eating people.
According to Alice Bailey, the Stymphalian Birds symbolize the nasty, cynical, chaotic thoughts in your mind.
Since Sagittarius is a fire sign, we are usually referring to out-of-control, angry thoughts aimed in all directions.
It’s you aggressively ruminating at 3 AM about some conflict with a co-worker, your boss, your spouse, or a random person who smashed into your car and isn’t sorry.
It’s you thinking your worst, poisonous thoughts about other people (and yourself) are true, and the only truth about them and you.
Those birds are the ungodly, out-of-control noise in your head.
In Sagittarius, the lesson is to calm the worst, marshy, soul-sucking thoughts and drive off the remaining ugly thoughts and dangerous birds, and leave some space for songbirds, silence, and self-acceptance.
What Happened?
Hercules didn’t understand what these birds were or how to drive them off. They were huge, hideous, and terrifying. They had iron beaks like swords and feathers like spears.
As if that wasn’t enough, they had poisonous poop that spread everywhere in the mind, I mean, marsh.
What really drove everyone mad, however, were the loud, hideous sounds those big birds made. They were chaos incarnate. And they never shut up, ever.
Hercules’ half-sister Athena (Hera wasn’t her mother either—she didn’t have a mother) gave him some giant bronze clackers made by the immortal god and blacksmith Hephaistos.
From the top of a nearby mountain, Hercules used his new tools to make a godly racket, and the birds freaked out and took to the air. As the birds came flying up to attack him, Hercules killed some of them with poison-tipped arrows. The rest flew off screaming and were never heard from again.
Ah, the blessed silence of wide open spaces where a person can breathe.
Read more about this Greek myth here.