Of Hunters and Goddesses: the Migration of the Myth of Actaeon Through Classical and Medieval Literature

Abstract

The myth of Actaeon recounts the story of a young Boeotian hunter who, having caused offence to the gods, is transformed into a stag and killed by his own hounds. This study traces the evolution of forms of this myth, and their significance, from its earliest appearances in archaic Greek fragments to its utilisation in fourteenth-century poetic works. In depth studies of the role of this myth in Euripides' Bacchae, Callimachus' Bath of Pallas, Ovid's Metamorphoses and Tristia, Dante's Inferno and John Gower's Confessio Amantis are presented. In addition, treatments of the myth by classical rationalisers, late classical and medieval allegorisers and mythographers and late medieval Ovidian commentators are discussed. The highly flexible nature of the mythic narrative is emphasised through illustrations of the way in which similar forms of the myth can absorb new, even conflicting, meanings depending on the context of their appropriation and the interests of the relevant interpretative community. The process of mythic interpretation, both as a historical and a modem phenomenon, is treated as a form of ongoing reception which reveals the influence of contemporary reading styles, literary modes and attitudes toward the literature of the past.