6 Actaeon’s transformation
Ovid tells the story of Actaeon in Book 3 of his poem The Metamorphoses. The story is particularly interesting for the question you have focused on in the previous section: what makes a human human? In the story, the hunter Actaeon is transformed into a stag by the goddess Diana. After his transformation, however, he still seems to have some of the qualities that we might think of as human. He is upset and tries to shout using recognisably human language, but because he is now a stag he is unable to speak.
Many modern artists have responded to Ovid’s story by making Actaeon the stag look recognisably part human. Chris Ofili’s version in Figure 18 is quite abstract, but you can see that Actaeon is standing on his hind legs in an upright human posture. You may wish to compare this version of Actaeon with the depiction of Actaeon before his transformation on the tapestry from Egypt in Figure 17. Art works often freeze the myth at a particular moment, right in the middle of Actaeon’s transformation – like the ancient art work you will examine in the next activity.
Let’s look now at how this transformation is represented in ancient art. Here, you will study an ancient vase painting by an artist whose name is not known. Scholars refer to this artist as ‘the Choephoroi Painter’, because of another famous vase that they painted which is decorated with a scene from a play called Choephoroi. The Choephoroi Painter lived in Lucania (central Italy) in the 4th Century BCE. The vase is tall, with two long handles and was probably used to hold wine.
The vase is decorated with multiple different mythological scenes. In the next activity you are going to focus on the one that is at the top of the pot, around its neck. You will zoom in on this mythological scene so that you can explore it in more detail.
Activity 12 Decoding a mythical image
Using the zoomed in picture above, write a description of this scene in five bullet points. Try to take note of the as many of the details as possible, but make sure that you are describing the image rather than interpreting it. Use only the information given to you in the image itself and make sure that you do not jump to conclusions about what you are seeing based on external information.
Discussion
There are a number of interesting things you might have noticed about this scene. For example:
- There are three figures in human form, one on the left and one on the right, and one in the centre.
- There are four dogs surrounding the central figure, who seem to be biting at the figure’s flesh.
- You can see the shapes of leaves and plants between the figures.
- The figure on the left is holding a spear and is dressed in a shorter dress than the figure on the right.
- The figure in the middle is holding a sword, and there are small antlers on the top of his head.
So far, you might have an idea about what is being depicted in this scene – but you are not yet able to identify what it is depicting solely from the evidence given to you on this painted pot. To find out more about this object and what it is depicting, you will need to look to different kinds of evidence. Combining evidence of different types is a crucial skill for the study of the ancient world. In this case, the evidence that will fill in the missing pieces so that you can understand the story that is being depicted here is found in a passage from Book 3 Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In the next activity, you will read this story, in a translation made in the early modern period by Arthur Golding. This will allow you to better understand the painted pot that you have examined. You will also have the opportunity to develop your reading skills by examining a more challenging literary text. By reading the passage twice, you will be able to understand both what the text means, and how Golding attempted to convey that meaning.
Arthur Golding translated Ovid’s Metamorphoses in 1567. This translation is still famous today because it was read by William Shakespeare, who used it to inspire his plays. In this activity, you will read Ovid’s tale of Actaeon, from Book 3 of the Metamorphoses, in Golding’s translation. You will see how the unlucky nephew of King Cadmus is harshly punished by the goddess Diana (who is also called Phebe in Golding’s version) for making a terrible mistake…
Note on reading older texts: English spelling is not consistent across time, which means that older texts can spell words in ways that we are not familiar with today. This text was first published in 1567, which means that you may not recognise the spellings of some of the words. A useful trick when dealing with older texts with archaic spellings is to try to read the text out loud, if you are able to. Sometimes you will recognise a word by ear, even if it looks very different to how you would write it in modern English. This is an important skill when reading older texts, as well as when reading texts in other languages.
Activity 13 Golding’s Ovid
Read this passage from Golding’s Metamorphoses aloud. Try to get a feel for the text’s rhythm and the pattern of its rhyme and verse – which is quite different to modern English poetry. Note down anything you notice about these aspects of the text in this box.
Then, read the text a second time. This time you are going to pay more attention to the meaning of the text – but it does not matter if you do not know every word. Try to record what you think the plot of the story is in five bullet points. You can use the other types of evidence (especially the ancient vase painting you looked at in the previous activity) to help you. In the next activity you will compare this with a more modern translation, but for now focus on trying to decode the story from this early modern version.
There was a valley thicke
With Pinaple and Cipresse trees that armed be with pricke.
Gargaphie hight this shadie plot, it was a sacred place
To chast Diana and the Nymphes that wayted on hir grace.
Within the furthest end thereof there was a pleasant Bowre
So vaulted with the leavie trees, the Sunne there had no power.
[…]
When Phebe felt hir selfe waxe faint, of following of hir game,
It was hir custome for to come and bath hir in the same.
That day she having timely left hir hunting in the chace,
Was entered with hir troupe of Nymphes within this pleasant place.
She took hir quiver and hir bow the which she had unbent,
And eke hir Javelin to a Nymph that served that intent.
Another Nymph to take hir clothes among hir traine she chose,
Two losde hir buskins from hir legges and pulled of hir hose.
[…]
Now while she keepes this wont, behold, by wandring in the frith
He wist not whither (having staid his patime till the morrow)
Comes Cadmus’ Nephew to this thicke: and entring in with sorrow
(Such was his cursed cruell fate) saw Phebe where she washt.
The Damsels at the sight of man quite out of countnance dasht,
(Bicause they everichone was bare and naked to the quicke)
Did beate their handes against heir brests, and cast out such a shricke,
That all the wood did ring thereof: and clinging to their dame
Did all they could to hide both hir and eke themselves fro shame.
But Phebe was of personage so comly and so tall,
That by the middle of hir necke she overpeerd them all.
[…]
And casting backe and angrie looke, like as she would have sent
An arrow at him had she had hir bow there readie bent:
so raught the water in hir hande, and for to wreake the spight,
Besprinckled all the heade and face of the unluckie Knight,
And thus forespake the heavie lot that should upon him light.
“Now make thy vaunt among thy Mates, thou sawste Diana bare.
Tell if thou can: I give thee leave: tell heardly, doe not spare.”
This done, she makes no further threates, but by and by doth spread
A payre of lively olde Harts hornes upon his sprinckled head.
She sharpes his eares, she makes his necke both slender, long and lanke.
She turnes his fingers into feete, his armes to spindle shanke.
She wrappes him in a hairie hyde beset with speckled spottes,
And planet in him fearfulness – and so away he trottes.
[…]
He sight and brayed: for that was then the speech that did remaine,
And downe the eyes that were not his, his bitter teares did raine.
No part remayned (save his mind) of that he earst had beene.
What should he doe? Turne home again to Cadmus and the Queene?
Or hyde himself among the Woods? Of this he was afrayd,
And of the tother ill ashamed. While doubting thus he stayd:
His hounds espyde him where he was, and Blackfoote first of all
And stalker special good of scent began aloud to call.
[…]
He strayned oftentymes to speake, and was about to say,
“I am Actaeon! Know your Lorde and Master sirs, I pray.”
But use of wordes and speech did want to utter forth his mind.
Their crie did ring through all the Wood redoubled with the winde.
[…]
Not knowing that it was their Lord, the huntsmen cheere their houds
With wonted noyse and for Actaeon looke about the grounds.
They hallow who could lowdest crie still calling him by name
As though he were not there, and much his absence they do blame,
In that he came not to the fall, but slackt to see the game.
As often as they named him he sadly shooke his head,
And faine he would have been away thence in some other stead,
But there he was. And well he could have found in heart to see
His dogges fell deedes, so that to feele in place he had not bee.
They hem him in on everie side, and in the shape of Stagge,
With greedie teeth and gripping pawes their Lord in peeces dragge.
So fierce was cruell Phebe’s wrath, it could not be alayde,
Till of his fault by bitter death the ransome had he payde.
Discussion
There are many characteristics of Golding’s verse that you may have chosen to focus on. I found it particularly interesting that Golding had chosen to write in rhyming couplets, two lines which end with words that rhyme. I felt that this gave a sense of speed to the passage and kept it running quickly on through the drama of the story. The rhythm of Golding’s translation also interested me. I noticed that each line has fourteen syllables, and that because he tried to keep strictly to this number of syllables, Golding often altered the word order of the sentence so that it is very different to what we would expect in modern English.
Now you are going to read a more modern version of the same story by Stephanie McCarter, published in 2022. You will be able to check whether you have understood the story in Golding’s version. But more importantly: pay careful attention to the difference between these two versions. Which do you like best, Golding or McCarter’s?
There was a valley thick with pines and slender
cypresses, named Gargaraphie and sacred
to girt Diana. Deep within a recess
there was a woodland cave no art had made.
Nature, with her own genius, mimicked art,
shaping an arch of pumice and light tufa.
On its right side, a lustrous fountain purled
with shadow eddies. Round it were broad pools
enclosed by grass. The goddess of the woods,
when weary from her hunting, liked to bathe
her virginal limbs in this translucent water.
Arriving here, she hands her spear and quiver
and bow, now slackened, to that nymph who bears
her weapons, while another grabs her robe
as it slips off. […]
Diana bathes in this familiar stream,
when look! His hunt postponed, Cadmus’ grandson
gets lost in unknown woods, steps faltering,
and comes into this grove. Fate guides his path.
As soon as he goes in the spring-soaked cave,
the nymphs, still naked, see the man and pound
their chests, filling the woods with sudden shrieks.
They crowd around Diana to conceal her
with their own bodies. Yet the goddess stands
much taller, and her neck outstrips them all.
[…]
Having no arrows near, she used what was
at hand and splashed that many face with water.
Then, sprinkling his hair with vengeful drops,
she added words that warned of coming doom:
“Now tell how you have seen me nude, if you
can tell.” She uttered no more threats but placed
the antlers of a long-lived stag atop
his sprinkled head. She stretched his neck out long
and added pointed tips to both his ears.
She turned his hands to feet, his arms to legs,
and wrapped his body in a spotted hide
She made him skittish too. Autonoe’s
heroic son takes flight and is amazed
at his own speed. But when he saw his face
and horns reflected in a stream, he tried
to call out “Wretched me!” Yet no voice came.
He groaned – that was his voice. Tears drenched a face
not his. His former mind alone remained.
What should he do? Return home to the palace
or hide inside the woods? His shame prevents
the former but his fear the latter. While
he hesitates, his dogs catch sight of him.
[…]
He flees through places where he’d often chased!
He flees from his own pets! He yearned to shout,
“I am Actaeon – recognize your master!”
The longed-for words won’t come. Barks fill the air.
[…] As they hold down their master,
the whole pack gathers round and bites his flesh
until there’s no room left for wounds. He groans,
sounding not human nor yet like a stag,
and fills familiar woods with wretched cries.
[…] But his companions, unaware,
goad the swift pack with customary cheers.
Their eyes search for Actaeon. Each one vies
to shout “Actaeon!” loudest, thinking he’s
not there. Hearing his name, he turns his head.
They mourn his absence and that, being late,
he’ll miss the spectacle of such a lucky
prize. Though he’d rather be away, he’s there.
He’d rather see, not feel, his dogs’ fierce feats.
All round, jaws sink into his flesh and tear
their master underneath the false deer’s likeness.
Not till he’d died from countless wounds, it’s said,
was quiver-clad Diana’s anger sated.
Now that you have explored the story of Actaeon in full, think back to the image on the painted pot that you analysed in Activity 12. You have now experienced the story of Actaeon told in two different media: text and image. In this next activity you are going to think about the strengths and weakness of each of these two different media for conveying stories about transformation. What can a text do, that images cannot do, and vice versa?
Activity 14 Texts and images
Think about the three versions of the Actaeon story that you have engaged with so far – the painted pot and the two translations. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of these two different media, image and text? Fill in the table below. Try to include at least one bullet point in each box.
| Image | Text | |
|---|---|---|
| Strengths | ||
| Weaknesses |
Comment
There are many ways to answer this question, as experiencing art is always subjective and you will have your own opinion on the merits and limitations of each medium. Here is an example table:
| Image | Text | |
| Strengths | Visual art can use colour and shape in ways that draw the viewer’s attention and help them to imagine things they might not have ever seen before. | Texts can convey the internal voice of the characters as well as what they are doing. Ovid uses this to great effect in this story, when he tells us that Actaeon in stag form cannot speak (‘his only voice was a groan’) but still manages to communicate to us what Actaeon would have said if he could (‘what has happened to me?’). This helps the reader to empathise with Actaeon. |
| Weaknesses | Images are static and so it is difficult for them to convey change that happens over more than a single moment. The artist must therefore choose a moment in the transformation to paint, and cannot show the process occurring over time. | Texts tend to focus on the main characters in the scene – if the poet had to describe what every character was doing, the story would become very long! It therefore is not always possible to know in detail what the other characters (for instance the women who are with Diana in the woods) are doing. |
The transformation of Actaeon has been frequently represented not just in text and art in the ancient world, but across many different media in the modern world too. Different artists and creatives have responded to the myth in different ways, drawing out particular resonances from the ancient story and creating new ones that speak to them and their modern audiences. In the next section you will discover an approach that is known as ‘classical reception’, which you can use to study the way that ancient stories change their meaning as they move through different versions, reimaginings and adaptations into the modern world.
