Aphrodite of Menophantos of the immortals at a moment not of their choosing, must pay dearly for the sight". Callimachus tells the story of a young man named Actaeon, who came upon the virgin Goddess Artemis while she was bathing. For punishment he was hacked to death by his own dogs. In the same Hymn, Teiresias is struck blind because he inadvertently sees Athena bathing in a mountain stream. Thus it is possible that Aphrodite in this statue conceals her nudity in order to protect herself from observers seeing her. Aphrodite of Menophantos The Aphrodite of Menophantos is a Roman marble statue of
The Death of Actaeon a stag and he was attacked and killed by his own hounds. Both paintings belong to a group of large-scale mythological paintings inspired by the "Metamorphoses" and referred to by Titian himself as ‘poesie’, the visual equivalent of poetry, which he began producing for Philip II of Spain in 1551 and which also include "Danaë" (many versions, Philip's in the Prado, Madrid), "Venus and Adonis" (private collection, London, but also other versions), "Perseus and Andromeda" (Wallace Collection, London), "The Rape of Europa" (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston), "Diana and Actaeon" and "Diana and Callisto" (shared by National Gallery of Scotland