Chapter 9 The Story of Hercules-9

The third task Eurystheus gave him was to capture the doe alive on Mount Cerhynia.It was a beautiful animal, with golden horns and bronze hooves, that lived freely on the slopes of Arcadia. It was one of five does caught by the goddess Artemis on her first hunt, and she was the only one caught by Released back into the woods, for Fortune had appointed a day to make Hercules exhausted from hunting her down.Hercules pursued her for a whole year, all the way to the place where the pure land people lived in the North Pole and the source of the Ister River.It is said that the sun here only comes out once a year.At last Hercules overtook the doe near the city of Annoe, on the banks of the Laton near Mount Artemis.To force her to stop, he had to shoot an arrow, which hit her in the leg.Then he caught the doe that was injured and could not run, carried it on his shoulders, and walked back.On the way, he met the goddess Artemis and her brother Apollo.She asked him why he had harmed the doe she had released, and even wanted to take her prey.

"Great goddess, I'm not joking," Hercules argued, "I'm forced to, otherwise how could I complete the task Eurystheus entrusted to me?" These words finally calmed the goddess' anger.Hercules returned to Mykeny with the live doe on his shoulders.