Statuette of Hercules Capturing the Ceryneian Hind

This statuette of Hercules was once part of a larger sculp-tural group that depicted the hero completing one of his Twelve Labors, tasks he was assigned in order to atone for killing his wife and children. For the third labor, Hercules chased a mythical female deer known as the Ceryneian hind for an entire year before subduing it. This statuette depicts the moment after the hero has caught the exhausted animal, which he restrains with his bent left knee. The musculature of Hercules’s torso is sharply flexed as he twists to the side, suggesting the physical effort necessary to overpower the creature.