Actaeon

I have not heard of this Greek person before, I mean, i recognise the name. But not really its story.

Apparently, Actaeon's father was a priestly herdsman, called Aristaeus, his mother was Autonoe. He was, like Achilles in later times, trained by the wise centaur Chirion. None really know this story well, the details vary quite considerably. The only certianty is that Actaeon suffered from the wrath of Artemis, goddess of the animals, her wrath proved fatal to him, and that he was turned into a stag and ripped apart by his own hunting hounds.

The now standard version of this tale, offered by the Hellenistic poet Callimachus, is that Artemis was bathing in the woods, and Actaeon stumbled apon her whilst hunting. He stopped and stared at her, caught up in her ravashing beauty, and in doing so he saw her naked. When Artemis noticed him, she forbade that he speak, if he did so, she would turn him into a stag, as punishment for seeing the naked form. Unfortunatly, once she had said this, Actaeon heard his hunting party, and he called out to them. On doing so, he was turned into a stag, and his hunting hounds, not recognishing him, tore him apart. In some accounts, the dogs where so upset by the death of their master that Chirion made them a statue so lifelike that the dogs thought it was there deceased master. But there are so many accounts. One is that he was Zeus' rival for Semele, his mothers sister, and in a nother account, by Euripides' Bacchae, he boasted that he was a better hunter than Artemis.

The names of the hounds.

According to Ovid.

Males: Melampus, Ichnobates (Echnobas), Pamphagos, Dorceus, Oribasus, Nevrophonus, Laelap, Theron, Pterelas, Hylaeus, Nape, Ladon, Poemenis (Therodanapis), Aura, Lacon, Harpyia, Aello, Dromas, Thous Canache, Cyprius, Sticcte, Labros, Arcas, Agriodus, Tigris, Hylanctor, Alce, Harpalus, Lycisca, Melaneus (..a greeks name, think the was a king..), Lachne, Leucon.

Females: Melanchaetes, Agre, Theridamas, Orestitrophos

Other than Ovid.

Dogs: Acamas, Syrus, Leon, Stilbon, Agrius, Charops, Aethon, Corus, Boreas, Draco, Eudromus, Dromius, Zephyrus, Lampus, Haemon, Cyllopodes, Harpalicus, Machimus, Ichneus, Melampus, Ocydromus, Borax, Ocythous, Pachylus, Obrimus;

Bitches: Argo, Arethusa, Urania, Theriope, Dinomache, Dioxippe, Echione, Gorgo, Cyllo, Harpyia, Lynceste, Leaena, Lacaena, Ocypete, Ocydrome, Oxyrhoe, Orias, *Sagnos, Theriphone, *Volatos, *Chediaetros

"ὁρᾷς τὸν Ἀκτέωνος ἄθλιον μόρον,ὃν ὠμόσιτοι σκύλακες ἃς ἐθρέψατοδιεσπάσαντο, κρείσσον' ἐν κυναγίαιςἈρτέμιδος εἶναι κομπάσαντ', ἐν ὀργάσιν."

Translation

"Look at Actaeon's wretched fatewho by the man-eating hounds he had raised,was torn apart, better at huntingthan Artemis he had boasted to be, in the meadows."