Deer has significant role in mythology of various peoples.
In neolithic cave paintings the figure of a shaman wears antlers as the deer-spirit.
In Greek mythology, the deer is particularly associated with Artemis in her role as virginal huntress. Callimachus, in his archly knowledgeable "Hymn III to Artemis," mentions the deer that drew the chariot of Artemis:
in golden armor and belt, you yoked a golden chariot, bridled deer in gold.
One of the Labors of Heracles was to capture the Cerynian Hind sacred to Artemis and deliver it briefly to his patron, then rededicate it to Artemis. Actaeon witnessed Artemis bathing in a pool and was transformed into a stag that his own hounds tore to pieces.
In Slavic mythology and folklore, Golden-horned deer is a large deer with golden antlers which often appear in fairytales. The legend of Saint Hubert concerned an apparition of a stag with the crucifix between its horns, effecting the worldly and aristocratic Hubert's conversion to a saintly life.
It is sometimes thought that stories about spectral deer may be the based upon tales of the now extinct Irish Elk(Megaloceros giganteus).
The naming of the ship, the "Golden Hind", of Sir Francis Drake is sometimes given a mythological origin, though Drake actually renamed his flagship, in mid-voyage, 1577, as a gesture to flatter his patron Sir Christopher Hatton, whose armorial bearings included the crest "a hind, or." In heraldry, a "hind" is a roe.
In 2004, a television dramatisation of the life of Hercules in the manner of Xena, Warrior Princess, represented centaur-like Hinds with the upper bodies of women that are shown to have the ability to heal, but this took a lot of energy. They could assume human form and their blood was poisonous to the Greek gods, by nullifying their ichor. (Compare Kryptonite's effect on Superman.)
