Ceryneian Hind

The Ceryneian Hind in Greek mythology was a huge female deer with golden horns, sacred to the goddess of the hunt, Artemis. Capturing it alive was the third task that King Eurystheus set the hero Heracles in the story of the Labours of Heracles. Heracles hunted it for a whole year, and had to appease Artemis before he could bring it to Mycenae.

Origin and Appearance

The hind is named after Ceryneia. Pausanias says that the town of Ceryneia in Achaea was named either after a native ruler or after the river Cerynites, which flows from Arcadia and Mount Ceryneia through that part of Achaea (Pausanias 7.25.5). Apollodorus places the hind at Oenoe in the Argolid, and says that it had golden horns and was sacred to Artemis (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.3). Pindar also speaks of a golden-horned hind, which Taygete had once dedicated to Artemis Orthosia, marking it as sacred (Pindar, Olympian 3.28–30).

Callimachus tells how the hind came to exist. When Artemis was a girl, she found a herd of deer near the Parrhasian hill in Arcadia, beside the river Anaurus. They were larger than bulls, and gold shone from their horns. There were five of them. Artemis caught four on foot, without dogs, and yoked them to her chariot, but the fifth escaped across the river Celadon through Hera’s contrivance, so that it would be a labour for Heracles in later days. The Ceryneian hill received her (Callimachus, Hymn 3 to Artemis 98–109).

The Third Labour of Heracles

As the third labour, Eurystheus ordered Heracles to bring the Ceryneian hind alive to Mycenae (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.3). Because the hind was sacred to Artemis, Heracles did not want to kill or wound it, so he chased it for a whole year. When the animal grew weary, it took refuge on Mount Artemisium and then went on toward the river Ladon in Arcadia. Heracles shot it just as it was about to cross the stream, took it on his shoulders, and hurried through Arcadia with it (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.3).

On the way, Artemis and Apollo met him. They would have taken the hind from him and rebuked him for trying to kill the goddess’s sacred animal. Heracles pleaded necessity and put the blame on Eurystheus, and so appeased the goddess. He then carried the hind alive to Mycenae (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.3). After this, Eurystheus ordered the next labour, the capture of the Erymanthian Boar (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.4).

Other Versions

In Pindar, Heracles is sent by Eurystheus to bring back the golden-horned hind; pursuing it from the ridges of Arcadia, he came to the land of the Ister, where Artemis received him, and saw the land beyond the blasts of the cold North Wind (Pindar, Olympian 3.25–34).

Diodorus gives three accounts of the capture: some said Heracles took the hind with nets, others that he tracked it down and overpowered it while it slept, and others that he wore it out by running it down. In every version, he says, the labour was done by cleverness rather than force (Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4.13.1). The Latin mythographer Hyginus says simply that Heracles brought the fierce, golden-horned deer from Arcadia alive into the sight of King Eurystheus (Hyginus, Fabulae 30).

In Euripides’ Heracles, the chorus lists the labours of the hero in a different way: he killed the dappled, golden-headed deer that ravaged the fields, and honored the huntress goddess of Oenoe with it (Euripides, Heracles 375–379). The Oenoe mentioned there is the same place in the Argolid that Apollodorus gives as the hind’s home.

Ceryneian Hind Sources

Apollodorus, Library 2.5.3–4; Pindar, Olympian 3.25–34; Diodorus Siculus 4.13.1; Hyginus, Fabulae 30; Callimachus, Hymn 3 to Artemis 98–109; Euripides, Heracles 375–379; Pausanias 7.25.5.

See Also: Artemis, Heracles, Eurystheus, Labours of Heracles, Apollo, Erymanthian Boar