Heracles and the Golden hind
Hello everyone, It is now week 3 of my Project ‘Another Fine Myth’, this week we continue with Heracles and his 12 labours. We have only spent 3 weeks on the 12 labours however as Heracles only completes 1 labour a year he is now into his third year. Last week we saw Heracles defeat the Lernaean Hydra, with the help of his Nephew he eventually severed all of the beasts heads and delivered the last immortal head to the gates of the city where King Eurystheus waits with the next impossible task for Heracles, to capture the Ceryneian (or Golden) Hind.
The Ceryneian hind belonged to the goddess Artemis, it was a huge deer which had golden antlers, hooves of bronze and it could run faster than a speeding arrow. For a whole year Heracles followed the deer but it was always too difficult and to fast to capture. Eventually Heracles happened to meet the Goddess Artemis and her brother Apollo where she told Heracles to stop with his quest, luckily Apollo reminded his sister it was the Goddess Hera that tricked Heracles into killing his family thus causing him to complete these tasks. Artemis despised Hera so it was decided that she would allow Heracles to continue as long as he returned the deer unharmed.
Eventually Heracles caught up with the deer, one night while it slept he captured it in a net and delivered the deer to King Eurystheus, Heracles released the deer back into the wild keeping his promise to Artemis.
This design is based on a deer by the incredible Japanese balloon artist Masayoshi Matsumoto.
Next week we meet a bit of a boar.