00:10The story of Artemis and Actaeon told the misfortune of a certain hunter named Actaeon.
00:17For not knowing what he did, he came to be punished, and suffered to be hunted,
00:23just as he had hunted. The hunter became the hunted. Actaeon was one of the quite
00:29many figures in Greek mythology who met a tragic end. He was the son of the herdsmen,
00:35Aristos, and Lady Otano, and was the grandson of Cadmus, the legendary king of Thebes.
00:43Actaeon resided in the region of Boeotia, and like many of the Greek heroes,
00:49he was trained by the centaur Chiron, to be a skilled hunter. Actaeon's own death is what
00:55made him famous. As the myths say, it was not any crime of his the cause of his death,
01:02but mere misfortune. Actaeon knew nothing about the secret cave of Artemis in the Vale of Gargavia.
01:10That explains why he came wandering close to the area, with his dogs after a day of hunt.
01:17He unwittingly ventured into the cave, just when the chaste goddess of the wild woods was preparing to
01:24bathe in the waters of the spring, together with the nymphs who attended to her. Amazed by her ravishing
01:31beauty, Actaeon stood and watched long enough to be spotted by the nymphs. The nymphs screamed in
01:38surprise and circled Artemis, attempting to cover her body with their own. But Artemis, standing head
01:46and shoulders over the rest, took up the water and flung it into Actaeon's face saying, Now you are free
01:54to tell that you have seen me all unrobed, that is, if you can tell. Just as the goddess had
02:01uttered
02:01those words, Actaeon began to turn into a deer. And when the transformation was completed, the goddess
02:09further planted fear within his heart. As the deer Actaeon fled away in a bid to get to safety,
02:16his dogs went after him, pursuing him in all grounds around Mountsthoron, between Boeotia and Attica.
02:24And at last, when having finally caught him, the dogs buried their fangs all over his body until he had
02:32been torn to pieces. That, was the end of Actaeon. In a slightly different version, Artemis cursed Actaeon
02:40that if he spoke a word to anyone, he would change into a deer. However, when the hunter heard his
02:48hunting dogs howl in the distance, he forgot the words of the goddess and called to them, and so,
02:54he immediately transformed into a deer. He started running into the woods to escape his dogs, but the
03:02well-trained dogs found him and tore him to pieces. No sooner had the dogs unknowingly killed their
03:09master, they roamed the woods, seeking him and howling in grief. Still searching for him,
03:16they came to the cave of the centaur Chiron, who made an image of the unfortunate Actaeon to soothe their
03:23grief. Because of this punishment, some people deemed Artemis, the chaste goddess of the hunt
03:29and wild, to be cruel and inconsiderate, but others judged her act worthy of her chastity.
03:36There are few accounts which say that Artemis did not turn Actaeon into a deer solely because
03:42he saw her naked. These accounts claim that Actaeon had disrespected the goddess before the bathing
03:49incident. One of them told that Actaeon was an arrogant fellow who presented himself as a better
03:56hunter and superior to Artemis. Thus, his boast was the reason behind his unfortunate fate.
04:03The second account said that Actaeon came into the cave and tried to seduce the goddess who, in her anger,
04:11made horns grow on his head, turning him into a stag. Still, a third version said that Actaeon
04:19dedicated the fruits of his hunting to Artemis, and purposed to marry her right in the temple of the
04:26goddess. And last account, said that what happened to Actaeon was masterminded by Zeus, because Actaeon
04:33loved Samel, the mother of Dionysus. At the order of Zeus, Artemis then cast a deer skin round Actaeon
04:42to make sure that his dogs would kill him, so as to prevent him to marry Samel. Nevertheless,
04:49and whichever the case may be, Actaeon's death was much lamented by his parents. His father
04:56Aristous migrated to Sardinia, while his mother Rotano was said to have left Thebes to live near
05:03Megara, because of her grief at the death of her son.
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