Grand Tour Bronze - Hercules Striking Down The Cerynian Hind, 19th Century

Hercules is ordered to capture, alive, a prodigious hind dedicated to the goddess Artemis. This doe has hooves of bronze (copper) and antlers of gold, and is so fast that it never tires.

For a whole year, Hercules pursues the animal throughout Greece, Arcadia and even as far as the land of the Hyperboreans, without ever succeeding in catching it. The difficulty lies not only in the doe's speed, but above all in the animal's sacred nature: Hercules must capture it without harming it, otherwise he will incur the terrible wrath of Artemis.Finally, exhausted, Hercules manages to immobilize the doe by shooting a light arrow that pierces only the skin between the tendon and bone of its two front legs, without spilling any blood.

While taking the doe back to Mycenae, he encounters Artemis and Apollo, furious at the hero's audacity. Hercules humbly apologizes, citing obedience to his cousin Eurystheus' orders. The goddess, appeased by his piety and restraint, allows him to show the doe to Eurystheus, on condition that he release her immediately afterwards, which he did without hesitation.