#golden hind
“It is not yours to, mortal. Be content with its beauty alone.”
-Nylea, god of the hunt
Art by Cyril Van Der Haegen
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Ceryneian Hind
The Ceryneiean or Golden Hind was the sacred animal of Artemis, the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt, virginity, flora, and fauna. So powerful and swift was it that it was faster than any arrow let loose and almost invincible. The Hind was finally captured by the demi-god Heracles as part of his twelve labours of penance.
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On 4 April 1581, Queen Elizabeth I boarded the Golden Hind at its mooring upon the Thames Estuary and watched as, by her request, the French ambassador bestowed knighthood upon Francis Drake.
The Queen was making a political manoeuvre by not knighting Drake herself as she did not want to be seen as condoning a pirate in the eyes of the Spanish.
Just months before, Drake had steered the ship around the world in only the second global circumnavigation in history, and the first to be completed by a single captain.
After Drake’s knighting, the Golden Hind remained on public display in Deptford by request of the Queen. Unfortunately, the ship’s structure decayed quite rapidly from rain and bad weather and by 1662, very little good timber remained.
The ship was broken up and the best of the remaining wood was fashioned into a chair by John Davies, the keeper of Deptford’s naval stores. He then gave this chair as a gift to the Bodleian Library.
What else remained of the Golden Hind is now believed to be buried in Convoy’s Wharf, a former Tudor Shipyard. The chair is still here at the Bodleian Libraries and to this very day stands on display in the Divinity School, where visitors can see it for themselves. You will find it alongside the Wren Door, as shown in this photograph.
Hanging on the back of the chair is a tablet bearing commemorative verses by Abraham Cowley, in both Latin and English. By now they’ve become rather hard to read by the naked eye, but there is a helpful transcription on hand.
To this great Ship which round the Globe has run,
And matcht in Race the Chariot of the Sun,
This Pythagorean Ship (for it may claime
Without Presumption so deserv’d a Name,
By knowledge once, and transformation now)
In her new shape, this sacred Port allow.
Drake & his Ship, could not have wisht from Fate
A more blest Station, or more blest Estate.
For Lo! a Seate of endles Rest is giv’n
To her in Oxford, and to him in Heav’n.
