Actaeon
A Photographic
Fantasy
By Glenn A. Osborn
Giuseppe Cesari (1606); notice that Actaeon's transformation already is in progress and that one of his dogs is wagging his tail in anticipation of the feast to come.
In Greek mythology, Actaeon was a hunter, trained by the Centaur Chiron. His fate was to be ripped to shreds by his own dogs after being turned into a stag by Artemis, who was pissed off because Actaeon saw her and her attendant nymphs naked in the woods. He just happened across the ladies as they gamboled in their alfresco Jacuzzi and, zap! She let him have it with a fistful of magic water.
Yes. Artemis, standing tall above the rest of her crew, took up the water of the spring and flung it into Actaeon's face, saying, "Now you are free to tell that you have seen me all unrobed—if you can tell." [Artemis to Actaeon. Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.192. Italics mine; one can imagine her tossing this off with a laugh, n'est-ce pas?]
As soon as she spit out those words, Actaeon began turning into a stag. This kind of vengeance apparently was a habit with Artemis; earlier, she had changed the sex of the Cretan Siproites when he had also spied the goddess bathing.
When the transformation of the hunter Actaeon was complete, the goddess embedded fear within his heart, and the stag Actaeon fled away, pursued by his hounds. When they finally caught him, they sunk their fangs into his flesh until there was no space for further wounds, and Actaeon the stag was dead.
Because of this deed, some deemed Artemis to be most cruel, but others judged her act to be worthy of her virginity. You decide. In any case, one might speculate that the bones of Actaeon remained scattered there on the forest floor, withering into humus. These images suppose that his skull retained some of his spirit and that the ghost of Actaeon thereafter drifted among the flowers and the flora of the woodlands.