Source Verification: Ceryneian Hind
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
Why did Heracles have to capture the hind alive rather than kill it?
The hind was sacred to Artemis, and harming her animal risked the goddess's own anger. Eurystheus set the labor as a live capture specifically because avoiding all injury to something so fast made it a far harder task than an ordinary hunt would have been.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 2.5.3
How long did Heracles chase the hind before finally catching it?
A full year. Apollodorus says the hind's speed made a direct chase useless, so Heracles simply followed it across the Peloponnese, mountain after mountain, until exhaustion finally slowed it enough to be caught near the river Ladon as it tried to cross.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 2.5.3
Where did Heracles actually catch the hind - Arcadia or the far north?
Sources disagree. Apollodorus places the capture at the river Ladon in Arcadia after the exhausted hind fled there. Pindar's Olympian Ode 3 instead sets the whole pursuit in the land of the Hyperboreans, far to the north, and links that same chase to Heracles's discovery of the olive tree he later planted at Olympia.
Source: Pindar, Olympian Ode 3.13-34
What happened when Artemis and Apollo confronted Heracles over the hind?
The two gods met him as he carried the hind through Arcadia and accused him of harming Artemis's sacred animal. Heracles explained that Eurystheus had ordered the labor and placed the blame there, an answer that satisfied Artemis enough to let him carry the hind on to Mycenae alive.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 2.5.3
Did Heracles really bring the hind back alive, or does every source agree on that?
No, they do not agree. Apollodorus is explicit that the hind reached Mycenae alive, matching the labor's whole point. Euripides's Heracles instead has its chorus recall that Heracles killed the golden-horned deer of Oenoe outright, a direct contradiction that the corpus preserves rather than resolves.
Source: Euripides, Heracles 375-379
Where Accounts Differ
- location of the hind's capture
- did Heracles kill the hind or capture it alive
- Location variant: Apollodorus places the capture at the river Ladon in Arcadia; Pindar's Olympian Ode 3 places the whole chase in the land of the Hyperboreans, tied to the origin of the Olympic olive crown.
- Outcome variant: Apollodorus says Heracles brought the hind to Mycenae alive; Euripides's Heracles has its chorus recall that he killed it.
Sources
- Apollodorus, Library 2.5.3
- Pindar, Olympian Ode 3.13-34
- Euripides, Heracles 375-379
- Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)