Actaeon, sculpture group in the cascade at Caserta

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 details of his transgression vary; "the only certainty is in what Aktaion suffered, his πάθος, and what Artemis did: the hunter became the hunted; he was transformed into a stag, and his raging hounds, struck with a 'wolf's frenzy' (λύσσα), tore him apart as they would a stag."^[1] Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (3072 × 2304 pixel, file size: 4. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (3072 × 2304 pixel, file size: 4. ... The Palace of Caserta, in Italian Reggia di Caserta, is a former royal residence in Caserta, near Naples, constructed for the Borbone kings of Naples. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... A minor god in Greek mythology, Aristaeus or Aristaios was the son of Apollo and the huntress Cyrene, who despised spinning and other womanly arts but spent her days hunting. ... In Greek mythology, Autonoë (Greek ) was a daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia. ... Boeotia or Beotia (//, (Greek Βοιωτια; see also list of traditional Greek place names) was the central area of ancient Greece. ... In astronomy, 2060 Chiron is an object discovered in 1977 by Charles Kowal. ... The Diana of Versailles, a Roman copy of a sculpture by Leochares (Louvre Museum) In Greek mythology, Artemis (Greek: (nominative) , (genitive) ) was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo. ... ‹ The template below (Expand) is being considered for deletion. ... Look up Pathos in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The plot

In the version that was first offered by the Hellenistic poet Callimachus, which has become the standard setting, Artemis was bathing in the woods near Boeotian Orchomenos when the hunter Actaeon stumbled across her, thus seeing her naked. He stopped and stared, amazed at her ravishing beauty. 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. Upon hearing the call of his hunting party, he cried out to them and immediately was changed into a stag. His own hounds then turned upon him and tore him to pieces. The hounds were so upset with their master's death, that Chiron made a statue so lifelike that the hounds thought it was Actaeon. The term Hellenistic (established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen) in the history of the ancient world is used to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks, however scattered geographically, to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of whatever ethnicity, and from the political dominance... Callimachus (Greek: ; ca. ... Orchomenos (Greek: ), the setting for many early Greek Myths, is a rich archaeological site in Boeotia, (modern Viotia, Greece) that was inhabited from the Neolithic through the Hellenistic periods. ... Deer have significant roles in the mythology of various peoples. ... Chiron and Achilles In Greek mythology, Chiron (hand) — sometimes transliterated Cheiron or rarely Kiron — was held as the superlative centaur among his brethren. ...

There are various other versions: Bibliotheke states that his offense was that he was a rival of Zeus for Semele (who was also his aunt), while in Euripides' Bacchae he has boasted that he is a better hunter than Artemis: The Bibliotheca (in English Library), in three books, provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. ... The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Zeús, genitive: Diós), is... In Greek mythology, Semele, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, was the mother of Dionysus (the god and his votaries were both identified as Bacchus) by Zeus. ... A statue of Euripides Euripides (Greek: Ευριπίδης) (c. ...

Diodorus Siculus has it that Actaeon wanted to marry Artemis. Other authors say the hounds were Artemis' own. Diodorus Siculus (c. ...

According to the Latin version of the story told by the Roman Ovid^[2] 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. This version also appears in Callimachus' Fifth Hymn, as a mythical parallel to the blinding of Tiresias after he sees Athena bathing. Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC – Tomis, now Constanţa AD 17), a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... Kithairon is a mountain range (No corner of Kithairon echoless, Oedipus Rex 440) about 10 mi (16 km) long, in central Greece, standing between Boeotia in the north and Attica in the south. ...

His statue was often set up on rocks and mountains as a protection against excessive heat. The myth itself probably represents the destruction of vegetation during the fifty Dog Days. Dog Days or dog days of summer are typically the hottest and most humid times of the year. ...

Actaeon by Titian

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (755x699, 90 KB) Titians The Death of Actaeon (1562), now in the National Gallery, London. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (755x699, 90 KB) Titians The Death of Actaeon (1562), now in the National Gallery, London. ... Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. ...

Actaeon in art

• Aeschylus and other tragic poets made use of the story, which was a favourite subject in ancient works of art.
• There is a well-known small marble group in the British Museum illustrative of the story, in gallery 83/84.[1]
• Two paintings by the 16th century painter Titian (right; and Diana and Actaeon).
• Actéon, an operatic pastorale by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.
• the aria "Oft she visits this lone mountain" from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, first performed in 1689 or earlier.
• Giordano Bruno, "Gli Eroici Furori".

This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. ... Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. ... For other uses, see Diana and Actaeon (disambiguation). ... Actaeon by Titian Actéon (Actaeon) is a Pastorale in the form of a miniature tragédie en musique in six scenes by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Opus H 481. ... Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643 - February 24, 1704) was a French composer of the Baroque era. ... Henry Purcell Henry Purcell (IPA: [1]; September 10 (?) [2], 1659–November 21, 1695), a Baroque composer, is generally considered to be one of Englands greatest composers. ... The Composer, Henry Purcell Dido and Aeneas is an opera by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell, from a libretto by Nahum Tate. ...

Notes

Walter Burkert (born Neuendettelsau (Bavaria), February 2, 1931), the most eminent living scholar of Greek myth and cult, is an emeritus professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland who has also taught in the United Kingdom and the United States. ...

Sources and references

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. [2]
• The Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. "Actaeon"
• Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3.138ff
• Euripides, Bacchae, 337–40
• Diodorus Siculus 4.81.4

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Actaeon