#actaeon

[thefugitivesaint]

Aleksander Rzewuski (1893-1983), 'Huntress of the East - Diana Orientalized', ''The Sketch'', Vol. 125, #1626, 1924

[en-theos]

also really really funny that actaeon has sort of gone down as the accidental victim of the god's rules- saw something he wasn't supposed to, didn't seek it out at all, got ripped to shreds anyway- when the fragments of the aeschylean tragedy suggest uh. literally the opposite.

actaeon's hunter reputation is equated to a reputation as ladies' man who considers every maiden in the vicinity as easy prey and boasts that he can distinguish an untrained filly from a mare (yuck) (foreshadowing is a narrative tool etc etc). he is also betrothed to semele whom zeus already has his eye on so (we think) zeus sends artemis to 'deal with him'. what ensues is either actaeon boasting that he is a better hunter than artemis (something agamemnon does too in some myths), or actaeon actively and explicitly hitting on artemis and facing the consequences. we're not even sure if any nudity is included!

which leaves the delicious delicious implications that 1) although the underlying cause (betrothal to zeus' lover) IS unrelated either the tragic structure or the myth itself still warrants a form of hubris that makes actaeon actually a very classical (hah) dick to women! and thus the preying upon maidens theme becomes far less innocuous or accidental, leaving no room for casting actaeon as purely a victim. and 2) it makes artemis not just a hunter but a hunter's trap. she deliberately lures actaeon, a maiden-hunter, by appearing in her maiden form and provoking him into blasphemous behaviour. after which the divine trap closes and he himself becomes the prey. literally. and this reversal of roles (pun intended) is just soso delicious

on the other hand, this very much implies that the (early) greeks could not conceive of divine punishment without a human cause or act of hubris. nuance? don't know her. surely actaeon had done something that warranted him getting ripped to shreds. what was he wearing saying

[sarafangirlart]

Yo these illustrations go insanely hard

[lionofchaeronea]

The death of Actaeon. At center, the hapless Actaeon is attacked by his own hunting hounds, while Artemis, in her deer-drawn chariot, looks on. At right, a messenger announces to Actaeon's parents, Aristaeus and Autonoe, that their son is dead. The scene is thought to depict a lost play by Aeschylus, Toxotides (Archer-Women). Side A of an Attic red-figure volute-krater (mixing bowl), attributed to the Painter of the Woolly Satyrs; ca. 450-440 BCE (Classical period). Dimensions: 51 cm (20 in) high x 33.1 cm (13 in) in diameter. Now in the Louvre, Paris, France.

[thethebaid]

which member of the house of cadmus would benefit from estrogen the most?

cadmus

actaeon

pentheus

laius

oedipus

creon

haemon

eteocles

polynices

other?

Voting ended onMar 26

[templekhrysenios]

artemis, goddess of wrath

AHHH i've been looking forward to making this post for so long. this is one of my favorite, and most contested, aspects of artemis among worshippers in my opinion. i think a lot of devotees don't like to think of our gods as vengeful or "misguided" (at least by our standards). in my opinion though, these stories are an important reminder about hubris and our own mortality. artemis represents the wild forces of the world, and the cycles of life and death are very much a part of those, and her stories exemplify that. her stories are meant to be warnings of venturing unprepared into the wild, lest we be gored by boars or our own hunting dogs.

i'm getting a little ahead of myself, but basically to me artemis' stories are meant to teach us to respect nature and her creatures, that sometimes our lives are in her hands, not our own.

IPHIGENIA

the story of iphigenia does not start so much with her, but with her father, agamemnon. agamemnon featured heavily in the iliad as the king of mycenae and leader of the achaeons during the war against the trojans. however, before he could even get to the shores of troy, his boats encountered a problem. as the story goes, artemis was incensed by agamemnon's past disrespect of her because he was hunting in her sacred grove or was boasting to be a better hunter than her, and refused to let the winds blow that were needed to set sail.

to get back in her good graces agamemnon had to perform a sacrifice, a sacrifice of his own daughter iphigenia. and, bringing her there under the guise of marrying achilles, that's exactly what he did.

however, during her sacrifice, in many cases, artemis whisks her away and replaces her with either an animal or an eidolon (image of the dead) statue. from there she was either made a goddess companion/epithet of artemis called artemis einodia OR she was made a priestess of artemis in tauris. artemis einodia is often syncretised with hekate, so it's often interpreted as iphigenia becoming hekate.

ACTAEON

actaeon, the son of aristaeus (a son of apollo and god of shepherds, cheesemaking, bees, honey, and medicinal herbs) and autonoe, was a renowned hunter from thebes. in earlier stories actaeon incurs the goddess' wrath for attempting to court semele (who becomes the mother of dionysus), or for boasting that he was a better hunter than her. in the classical greek and roman era stories, the story was interpreted as him coming upon artemis bathing, and attempting to ravish her.

no matter the crime, the punishment always stays the same, and actaeon is turned into a stag to be chased and gored by his hunting dogs.

CALLISTO

callisto's story is one that is important to artemis' lore for reasons more than just the obvious. there are two ways the story usually goes: callisto, one of artemis' companions, is either raped by zeus or is seduced her under the guise of her mistress. this puts forward the theory that, if callisto could be seduced by her mistress, were they in some sort of queer relationship? this is something that would have likely been inferred by ancient readers as true, but it's still something modern people struggle to interpret.

either way, callisto ends up pregnant, which she attempts to hide from her troupe. however, there is no permanent solution to hiding a pregnancy, and artemis eventually discovers her. upon this revelation, callisto is turned into a bear--thought as one of the most maternal of animals to the ancient greeks.

her son, arcas, ends up being raised by either maia (mother of hermes) or king lykaon of arcadia (callisto's father). at some point after that, callisto as a bear is found in the sanctuary of zeus by arcas, who attempts to kill her. out of pity for the two, zeus puts them in the sky as the constellations bootes (bear watcher) and ursa major (great bear).

KOMAITHO

komaitho was the priestess of artemis triklaria in the city patrai, akhaia. although virginity was not meant to be a permanent state for the priestesses of artemis, before komaitho could be given away to a man officially, she falls in love with a beautiful young man named melanippos.

however, the two receive pushback from melanippos' family, so the two decide to "elope" essentially. komaitho and melanippos then consummate their relationship inside of the temple of artemis, an extreme act of disrespect.

shortly after, artemis sends a plague upon the city, where no crops grew and strange sicknesses befell numerous people. when the oracle of delphi is consulted, she says that artemis has demanded not only the sacrifice of that couple, but a young man and woman every year thereafter.

HIPPOLYTUS

hippolytus was the son of theseus (yes, that theseus), king of athens, that he had with an amazon warrior. he was raised by the amazons, and upon maturity sent to live with his father. because of his upbringing it is assumed that he was introduced to artemis, where he made a pact of virginity.

upon coming to athens, hippolytus meets his step-mother phaedra, the queen. phaedra falls in love with the young man, but is rejected by him upon confessing. devastated, she hangs herself, and in a note claims that hippolytus raped her. theseus is devastated, and calls upon the power of his father poseidon to kill his son.

and although artemis does not curse him directly in this story, she did not save him from his fate, which i'd consider a curse in and of itself.

ADONIS

the story of adonis often goes the same way, but the names of the characters are disputed. in one, adonis' mother is smyrna, her father king theias of the assyrians. in another, her name is myrrha, and her father king kinyras of kypros. either way, aphrodite lays a curse upon the woman to fall in love with her father, who she lays with through deception.

she becomes pregnant, of course, whereupon the father finds out and tries to kill her. the mother begs to be turned invisible to save her life, so aphrodite turned her into the myrrh tree.

nine months later, adonis pops out, and aphrodite falls in love with him for his exceptional beauty. she tries to hide him from the rest of the gods with persephone, who also falls in love with him (assumedly this is before her descent into the underworld). persephone and aphrodite then negotiate with zeus and it is agreed they each get to have him for half of the year.

after this agreement, while adonis is out hunting, artemis sends boars to kill him for revenge against aphrodite. this wrath came about for one of two reasons: it was she who had made phaedra fall in love with artemis' devoted follower hippolytus, which led to his death or it was because adonis was such a good hunter she was jealous.

either way, adonis dies, and the mixture of his blood and aphrodite's tears turn into the anenome flower. in some versions, adonis is resurrected as the god of beauty and the changing of seasons.

SOURCES:

theoi.com

artemis by stephanie budin

[weepingwidar]

Dennis Scholl (German, 1980) - Aktaion (2023)

[oldschoolfrp]

An actaeon or "elk centaur" is a 9' tall solitary protector of woodland creatures, built like a minotaur with elk antlers, legs, and hide, capable of camouflaging itself in woods as if invisible, with a breath weapon that polymorphs foes into ordinary forest animals, and able to summon allied creatures such as boars, bears, griffons, or treants. Some are known to be spellcasters. (Terry Dykstra from the D&D Rules Cyclopedia, TSR, 1991)

Looking at this picture I'd like to stat up a "minomoose," like a taller minotaur with a moose head, with multiple blunt attacks by swinging much larger antlers side-to-side, and capable of diving into the ocean. (Edit: Thinking further, this might be a “separated by a common language” moment. American elk are very large deer with long round antlers; European elk = American moose, bigger and with broad antlers; so the acaeon might have been intended to resemble the latter.)