research!! this time actea and lyssa! there wasn’t much I found for this beyond what most people probably know already but if you don’t. now you will know!
so as you may know actea and lyssa is based on the greek legend of the hunter Actaeon. as with much mythology like this, there are various different accounts of how exactly the story goes, but the general idea is that a hunter called Actaeon commits some perceived transgression against the goddess Artemis (the greek god of hunting and the moon). Artemis is enraged, and turns Actaeon into a stag, whereupon he is hunted and killed by his own hunting hounds, who have been possessed by Lyssa (also known as Lytta by Athenians, Lyssa is the personification of mad rage, frenzy and rabies) (Lyssa also features in another myth the mechanisms cover: she is the one who Hera calls upon to drive Heracles into a mad rage, causing him to kill his family, a myth covered in the song ‘Favoured Son’, though in the mechs’ version neither Hera nor Lyssa are mentioned to my knowledge)
accounts of what motivated Artemis’ wrath vary, but it seems the most popular version is one in which Actaeon comes across Artemis bathing and cannot look away due to her godly beauty. this seems to be the Hellenistic poet Callimachus’ version, and of course the version recounted in the song. however, the song lyric ‘beat the hunter at her own game’ may reference the version in which Actaeon is punished for boasting that he is a better hunter than Artemis herself.
the idea of Lyssa being someone who cares deeply for Actea and does not want to kill her also reminds me of one version where the hounds are distraught afterwards and Chiron (the centaur who trained Actaeon) made a statue of him to calm them
hope this was interesting :)
