Tragedy in Ovid's Metamorphoses of Actaeon is one of the first presented in the "Metamorphoses" that is very metatheatrical in nature. One of the first known appearances of this myth was in a tragedy written by Aeschylus in the 5th century BC, the "Toxotides", or the "Female Archers". The myth, as presented in the "Metamorphoses" shows Actaeon coming across the sight of Diana, or Artemis in the Greek tragedy, bathing herself. Upon being discovered, Actaeon is turned into a deer and eventually killed by his own pack of hunting dogs. Though the full text of Aeschylus' tragedy is lost to modern readers, it would
Diana and Actaeon the transformation still in progress; like many depictions the head is shown transformed, but most of the body remains human. Less often Actaeon is fully transformed when caught by his dogs. The story was popular on Italian Renaissance maiolica. The origins of the "Diana and Actaeon Pas de Deux," a "divertissement" created for a 1935 version of "La Esmeralda," lie in two earlier ballet productions. The first of these was "Tsar Kandavl" (aka "Le Roi Candaule"), premiered in 1868 by the Imperial Russian Ballet in Saint Petersburg. Based on a story told by Herodotus in his "Histories," this four-act ballet,