Actaeon heaping up the glowing ashes for you,<br> And cooked ewe-lambs for you every day.<br> But you hit him and turned him into a wolf,<br> His own herd-boys hunt him down<br> And his dogs tear at his haunches.<br><nowiki>"</nowiki>Actaeon, torn apart by dogs incited by Artemis, finds another Near Eastern parallel in the Ugaritic hero Aqht, torn apart by eagles incited by Anath who wanted his hunting bow. The virginal Artemis of classical times is not directly comparable to Ishtar of the many lovers, but the mytheme of Artemis shooting Orion, was linked to her punishment of Actaeon by T.C.W. Stinton; the
The Death of Actaeon Titian seems never to have resolved it to his satisfaction, and the painting apparently remained in his studio until his death in 1576. There has been considerable debate as to whether it is finished or not, as with other very late Titians, such as the "Flaying of Marsyas", which unlike this has a signature, perhaps an indication of completion. It is a sequel of Titian's work "Diana and Actaeon" showing the story's tragic conclusion, which approximately follows the Roman poet Ovid's account in the "Metamorphoses": after Actaeon surprised the goddess Diana bathing naked in the woods, she transformed him into