Third Labour (Cerynitian Hind)

For the third labour, Heracles needed to fetch the Cerynitian hind that lived at Oinoe or the forest of Cerynitia, and was sacred to the goddess Artemis. The Cerynitian hind had golden antlers and brazen hooves.

The Pleiad Taÿgete had given the hind to Artemis, in return for trying to hide her from Zeus, even though Artemis was unsuccessful. Artemis had changed her to a doe with golden horns.

The Alexandrian poet, Callimachus, gave us a different story about the Cerynitian Hind. In the Hymn to Artemis, the still young goddess found five hinds at the banks of Anaurus, below the Parrhasian hills. Artemis marvelled at the size of these deer, larger than bulls and with golden horns on their heads. Artemis managed to capture four of them, and yoked them to pull her golden chariot. The fifth hind escaped into the forest of Cerynitia, where it became known as the Cerynitian Hind, sacred to the goddess.

According to the poet Pindar (in Olympian III), the Cerynitian hind was indeed Taÿgete, which Heracles chased all the way north. There, Heracles came upon the land of the Hyperboreans, and he found himself in a lovely grove of olive trees. The hero liked the trees so much that he brought them back with him, planting the olive trees around the race course in Olympia.

This labour should have been easy, but it took Heracles over a year to capture the hind. Heracles brought down the hind with an arrow aimed at its hoof, without killing the creature.

As Heracles was returning to Tiryns with the hind, Artemis spotted the hero carrying off her favourite animal. Artemis would have attacked the hero, but Heracles explained to the angry goddess about his task, and how he had not wanted to harm the creature. Heracles brought the Cerynitian hind to Tiryns, alive and unharmed, at the goddess' request.