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.
In
Greek mythology, the Ceryneian hind (
Greek: Κερυνῖτις ἔλαφοςKerynitis elaphos, Latin: Elaphus Cerynitis), was a creature that lived in
Ceryneia,[1]Greece and took the form of an enormous female
deer, larger than a bull,[1] with golden antlers[2] like a stag,[3] hooves of bronze or brass,[4] and a "dappled hide",[5] that "excelled in swiftness of foot",[6] and snorted fire.[3] To bring it back alive to
Eurystheus in
Mycenae was the
third labour of Heracles.
Other names and descriptions for it 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 of
Maenalus[10] and beast of Maenalus.[11]Frazer says that the hind took its name from the river Cerynites, "which rises in
Arcadia and flows through
Achaia into the sea".[2]
One tradition says that
Artemis found a mighty herd of five Ceryneian hinds playing on the base of
Parrhasian hill far away from the banks of the "black-pebbled
Anaurus"[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 purposely let one escape to the
Ceryneian hill to be a future labour for
Heracles.[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 its sacredness, Heracles did not want to harm the hind and so hunted it for more than a year, from
Oenoe[2] to
Hyperborea,[7] to a mountain called
Artemisius, (a range which divides
Argolis from the plain of
Mantinea) before finally capturing the hind near the river
Ladon.[2]
Euripides says Heracles slew the hind and brought it to Artemis for
propitiation.[5] Another tradition says he captured it with nets while it was sleeping or that he ran it down,[6] while another says he shot and maimed it with an arrow just before it crossed the river Ladon.[2] Once Heracles captured the hind, and only after explaining to Artemis and
Apollo ("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 it alive to
Eurystheus in
Mycenae, thus completing his third labour.[2]
Art
Athenian plate, c. 560 BC
Roman bronze, 1st century BC, probably a copy from
Lysippus
"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] Hence, as the reindeer is said to be the only species of deer of which the female has antlers,
Sir William Ridgeway argues ingeniously that the hind with the golden horns was no other than the reindeer."[2]
A doe bearing antlers was unknown in Greece, but the story of the hind is suggestive of
reindeer, which, unlike other deer, can be harnessed and whose females bear antlers. The myth relates to the
Hyperborea,[7] which may have been the archaic origin of the myth itself, as
Robert Graves thought.
Authoritative primary source translations say the creature was a:
^
abcde"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.