In Greek mythology, the Ceryneian hind (Ancient Greek: Κερυνῖτις ἔλαφος Kerynitis elaphos, Latin: Elaphus Cerynitis), was a creature that lived in Ceryneia,[1] Greece and took the form of an enormous female deer, larger than a bull,[1] with golden antlers[2] like a stag,[3] hooves of bronze or brass,[4] and a "dappled hide",[5] that "excelled in swiftness of foot",[6] and snorted fire.

[11] Frazer says that the hind took its name from the river Cerynites, "which rises in Arcadia and flows through Achaia into the sea".

"[2] Because of its sacredness, Heracles did not want to harm the hind and so hunted it for more than a year, from Oenoe[2] to Hyperborea,[7] to a mountain called Artemisius, (a range which divides Argolis from the plain of Mantinea) before finally capturing the hind near the river Ladon.

[5] Another tradition says he captured it with nets while it was sleeping or that he ran it down,[6] while another says he shot and maimed it with an arrow just before it crossed the river Ladon.

[2] "Pindar says that in his quest of the hind with the golden horns Hercules had seen "the far-off land beyond the cold blast of Boreas.