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Long long ago, in the age
before television, Eurystheus and Hera were angry that Hercules
returned triumphant from his defeat of the Hydra. Realizing Hercules
could probably slay any monster they sent him after, they spent weeks
thinking of the third task. Eventually they decided to have him
capture the Ceryneian Hind. The Ceryneian Hind was a magical deer
that could outrun an arrow and was considered impossible to hit. To
make it even harder Hercules had to capture and deliver it to
Eurystheus alive. Hercules knew he had to move fast to catch the hind
so he set out on this task alone. It didn't take him long to spot the
glint of the hinds golden antlers. He started to slowly stalk the
hind but it spotted him and dashed off with mystical speed. Hercules
gave chase but the hind managed to always stay just ahead of him. He
chased it all across Greece and into Thrace, which is near modern day
Turkey. He then chased north into Istria which is near modern day
Croatia. He then chased it north all the way to Hyperborea.
Hyperborea was a new land to Hercules that he had only heard about
before. It was far to the north, and was so far north it was beyond
where Boreas, the north wind, lived. Because it was beyond the north
wind it was a warm and sunny place to live. It took Hercules over a
year to reach Hyperborea and still the Hind ran as fast as it did at
the beginning. He had tried many times to sneak up on it but it
always spotted him and ran off. Finally Hercules realized he would
never run it down by simply chasing it or sneaking up on it. He had
seen how it moved often enough that he knew he could probably hit it
with an arrow. While the hind could outrun an arrow fired at it,
Hercules knew if he shot an arrow in the space right in front of the
hind it would run into the arrow. Unfortunately he had to capture the
hind alive and killing it would cause him to fail. Looking at the
hind standing in front of him for what seemed like the thousandth
time he decided to take a chance. He fired an arrow in front of the
hind so it would run into it, but he aimed down for it's legs. The
arrow got stuck in the hinds forelegs and fell to the ground.
Hercules wasted no time, he run forward and tied up the hind so it
couldn't escape. Hercules breathed a sigh of relief, he figured the
hard part was over, now he just had to take it back to Eurystheus. He
was strong enough he could pick up the hind and carry it back if he
had to. However before he could even take one step back with the hind
Artemis, goddess of the moon and the hunt, appeared before him aiming
an arrow from her magical bow that couldn't miss right at his heart.
Artemis demanded that Hercules release the Ceryneian Hind as it was
her own personal deer and a sacred beast. Hercules hadn't known that
the hind belonged to Artemis but hearing this he realized this task
had been a trap from the beginning. As a goddess, Hera would have
known that the hind was sacred to Artemis and she knew that if
Hercules did manage to capture the beast then Artemis would slay him.
If Hercules released the hind he would fail his task but if he didn't
then Artemis would kill him. Hercules knelt before Artemis and
explained that he had been given this task by Hera. Not wanting to
oppose another goddess Artemis promised he would allow Hercules to
live so long as he released the Ceryneian Hind as soon as he
completed his task. When Eurystheus heard that Hercules was bringing
the hind back with permission from Artemis he declared that he would
take the hind and put it in his personal zoo. He was hoping to force
Hercules to break his promise to Artemis so she would kill him.
Hearing of Eurystheus' declaration, Hercules knew what was planned.
When Eurystheus' messenger, Copreus, came to take the hind Hercules
let got of the rope right before Copreus could grab it. The hind
immediately ran off free. Hercules declared that he had been
commanded to just capture and deliver it, if Copreus couldn't hold
onto it then that wasn't his fault.
Continued in The Erymanthian Boar