 When beloved pacifist king Iphicles of Meliad refuses to cancel the new wine festival of Dionysus after his queen Camilla dreamed the virgins will, as the law allows them, kill him instead of prolong his reign by a year and then crown his firstborn heir Pentheus, she sends their junior son Nestor to Hercules, who had just been cheated by Centaur twins who sneakingly trade places at each drinking duel, without explaining. In Meliad they find the blind seer, who reluctantly predicts another bloodbath. Pentheus prays to war-god Ares. Captain Gudrun s guards fail to overpower Hercules and Nestor but he tricks them into secret underground water, then Pentheus tells them his plan to fix the maidens  wine and leaves, expecting the hydra to kill them off, but Hercules slays it and pins the corps down as a stepladder, just too late to stop the maidens drinking the new wine Ares poisoned, so they rush to the palace, seen by Pentheus and Gudrun...