Unlucky Man Sees Naked Goddess, Gets Torn Apart by Dogs
The Ancient Greeks’ worldview differed greatly from the orderly worldview of the major monotheistic religions, in which the universe is ruled by an omniscient, omnipotent, and infallible God. The Ancient Greeks sometimes saw their gods as arbitrary and capricious, and few myths depict that conception of the Olympians’ arbitrariness and capriciousness as does the myth of Actaeon.
Most entries in this article are about mortal or immortal beings who did something to invite the wrath of the gods, or at least found themselves in a situation in which the wrath of a good was understandable, even if unjustified. The unfortunate Actaeon on the other hand, endured a divine punishment despite not having done anything of his own volition that could have justified his fate.
In Greek mythology, Actaeon was a famous Theban hero, who loved to hunt in the outback of his native region of Boeotia. Like the hero Achilles, of Iliad fame, Actaeon had been taught hunting by the centaur Chiron. Chiron – a mythical being with the lower body of a horse, and the torso and upper body of a human – was notable in Greek legend for his youth-nurturing nature. He instilled in Actaeon a passion for hunting that would prove the Theban hero’s undoing.
One day, while out hunting with his dogs in Boeotia, Actaeon unwittingly stumbled upon the chaste goddess Artemis – Diana to the Romans – while she was naked, bathing in spring with some wood nymphs. Although the extent of Actaeon’s sin, if it could even be called that, was to simply have had the misfortune of bumping into a naked goddess, Artemis was livid that a mortal saw her naked. So she turned him into a stag. The terrified Actaeon bounded into the woods, but his own dogs detected the scent of a stag, and failing to recognize their master in his new body, chased him down and tore him to pieces.