Heracles breaking off the golden antler of the Ceryneian Hind, while Athena (left) and Artemis look on (black-figureamphora, ca. 540–30 BC)
Creature information
Other name(s)
doe with the golden horns, Golden-horned hind, Ceryneia hind, Cerynitian hind, beast with golden antlers, Parrhasian hind, nimble hind of Maenalus and beast of Maenalus.
Other names and descriptions for her were: doe with the golden horns,[7] golden-horned hind,[5] Ceryneia hind,[4] Cerynitian hind,[2] beast with golden antlers,[8] Parrhasian hind,[9] nimble hind ofMaenalus[10] and beast of Maenalus.[11]Frazer says that the hind took her name from the river Cerynites, "which rises inArcadia and flows throughAchaia into the sea".[2]
One tradition says thatArtemis found a mighty herd of five Ceryneian hinds playing on the base ofParrhasian hill far away from the banks of the "black-pebbledAnaurus"[1] where they always herded. Artemis was so impressed by the hinds that she yoked four of them to her golden chariot with golden bridles, but at the suggestion of Hera let one escape to theCeryneian hill to be a future labour forHeracles.[1] Whilst in Ceryneia, the hind chased farmers from vineyards.[3]
The Ceryneian hind was sacred to Artemis.[4] "The hind is said to have borne the inscription 'Taygete dedicated [me] to Artemis'."[2] Because of her sacredness, Heracles did not want to harm the hind and so hunted her for more than a year, fromOenoe[2] toHyperborea,[7] to a mountain calledArtemisius, (a range which dividesArgolis from the plain ofMantinea) before finally capturing the hind near the riverLadon.[2]
Euripides says Heracles slew the hind and brought her to Artemis forpropitiation.[5] Another tradition says he captured her with nets while she was sleeping or that heran her down,[6] while another says he shot and maimed her with an arrow just before she crossed the river Ladon.[2] Once Heracles captured the hind, and only after explaining to Artemis andApollo ("who would have wrested the hind from him"[2]) that he had only hurt the sacred hind out of necessity, was he allowed to take her alive toEurystheus inMycenae, thus completing his third labour.[2]
Heracles and Apollo struggling over the Hind, as depicted on a Corinthian helmet (early 5th century BC)
"Pindar says that in his quest of the hind with the golden horns Hercules had seen "the far-off land beyond the cold blast of Boreas. [Hyperborea]"[7]Robert Graves thinks that this myth relates to theHyperborea.[7] Likewise, the theory ofSir William Ridgeway argues that the hind is a reindeer, this being the only species of deer of which the female has antlers"[2] However, Pindar is describing the length and breadth of the chase, not the origin of the deer. This female deer is unlikely to be a reference to a reindeer, since castrated male reindeer are the ones who are harnessed and used as draft animals, not females.[12]
A European female deer bearing antlers, moreover, was not unknown in Greece. Recent scholarship documents this phenomenon both in real life and in Greek culture (with images).[13] Although rare, female deer who experience unusual levels of testosterone, whether in utero or as a result of an injury or illness, can grow antlers. In literature such deer are usually connected in some way with Artemis, e.g. Callimachus'Hymn to Artemis lines 98-106. Further, from the Greek Bronze Age on down, there is visual evidence for female deer bearing antlers, a motif that continues into the Byzantine era, as on a relief sculpture in the Ravenna Archaeological Museum (illustrated at D-DAI-ROM 58.913).
Authoritative primary source translations say the creature was a:
^abcd"Hymn III (to Artemis). 98 ff.".Callimachus and Lycophron. Translated by Mair, G. R. London; New York: William Heinemann; G. R Putnam's Sons. 1921. p. 69. ark:/13960/t7qn6bw6r.
^abcdefghijk"The Library 2. 5. 3-4".Apollodorus the Library. Vol. 1. Translated by Frazer, Sir James George. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1921. pp. 191 with the Scholiast. ark:/13960/t00012x9f.
^abcd"The Fall of Troy, Book VI. 223 ff.".Quintus Smyrnaeus The Fall Of Troy. Translated by Way, A. S. London; Cambridge, Massachusetts: William Heinemann Ltd; Harvard University Press. 1984 [1913]. p. 271. ark:/13960/t2m61f62d.
^abcSmith, W., ed. (1870).Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography And Mythology. Boston: Little, Brown, And Company. p. 395. ark:/13960/t9f47mp93.
^abcd"Madness Of Hercules. 370 ff.".Euripides. Vol. 3. Translated by Way, Arthur S. London; New York: William Heinemann; G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1930. p. 157. ark:/13960/t6057th3x.
^abc"Book 4. 13".Diodorus of Sicily. Vol. 2. Translated by Oldfather, C. H. London; Cambridge, Massachusetts: William Heinemann Ltd; Harvard University Press. 1967 [1935]. p. 385. ark:/13960/t7qn6bw6r.
^abcde"Olympian Odes III 28-42. 28 ff.".The Odes of Pindar. Translated by Sandys, Sir John. London; New York: William Heinemann; The Macmillan Co. 1915. pp. 37 with the Scholiast. ark:/13960/t02z1h76p.
^abc"Hercules Oetaeus 1237 ff".Seneca's Tragedies. Vol. 2. Translated by Miller, Frank Justus. London; New York: William Heinemann; G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1929 [1917]. p. 285. ark:/13960/t7fr0065f.
^"Agamemnon 829 ff".Seneca's Tragedies. Vol. 2. Translated by Miller, Frank Justus. London; New York: William Heinemann; G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1929 [1917]. p. 69. ark:/13960/t7fr0065f.
^ab"Hercules Furens 222 ff".Seneca's Tragedies. Vol. 1. Translated by Miller, Frank Justus. London; Cambridge, Massachusetts: William Heinemann Ltd; Harvard University Press. 1938. p. 21. ark:/13960/t71v5s15x.
^ab"Hercules Oetaeus 17 ff".Seneca's Tragedies. Vol. 2. Translated by Miller, Frank Justus. London; New York: William Heinemann; G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1939. p. 187. ark:/13960/t7fr0065f.
^ab"On Animals 7. 39".Aelian On the Characteristics of Animals. Vol. 2. Translated by Scholfield, A. F. Cambridge, Massachusetts: William Heinemann Ltd. 1959. p. 153. ark:/13960/t7hq6cw1k.
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