Actaeon - The plot, Actaeon in art, Sources and references

A hunter in Greek mythology, whose story epitomizes the fate of a mortal who encounters a god. He came upon Artemis, the goddess of chastity, while she was bathing and therefore naked: she threw water at him, changing him into a stag, so that he was pursued and then killed by his own hounds.

In Greek mythology, Actaeon (or Aktaion), son of Aristaeus and Autonoe in Boeotia, was a famous Theban hero, trained by the centaur Cheiron, who suffered the fatal wrath of Artemis (or her Roman counterpart Diana).

The plot

Artemis was bathing in the woods near Boeotian Orchomenos when the hunter Actaeon stumbled across her, thus seeing her naked. Once seen, Actaeon was punished by Artemis: she forbade him speech — if he tried to speak, he would be changed into a stag — for the unlucky profanation of her virginity's mystery. The hounds were so upset with their master's death, that Chiron made a statue so lifelike that the hounds thought it was Actaeon.

There are various other versions: Apollodorus states that his offense was that he was a rival of Zeus for Semele (who was also his aunt), while in Euripides' Bacchae he boasts that he is better hunter than Artemis.

Look at Actaeon's wretched fate who by the man-eating hounds he had raised, was torn apart, better at hunting than Artemis he had boasted to be, in the meadows.

Diodorus Siculus has it that Actaeon wanted to marry Artemis. 4), having accidentally seen Diana (Artemis) on Mount Cithaeron while she was bathing, he was changed by her into a stag, and pursued and killed by his fifty hounds.

Actaeon in art

Aeschylus and other tragic poets made use of the story, which was a favourite subject in ancient works of art.

Sources and references

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Actaeon This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. "Actaeon" Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3.138ff Euripides, Bacchae, 337–40 Diodorus Siculus 4.81.4