Diana and Actaeon spring. Outraged and embarrassed that he had seen her naked, she punished him by destroying his power of speech and turning him into a stag, with antlers and a shaggy coat. In deer form, he was torn to pieces by his own hunting dogs, whipped into a raging fury by Artemis. In 1935, Agrippina Vaganova staged a new production of "La Esmeralda" for the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, as the company and the city were then known. She created a new, bravura "pas de deux" for Diana and Actaeon, joining the names of the modest Roman goddess and the hapless
Diana (mythology) deer may also offer a covert reference to the myth of Acteon (or Actaeon), who saw her bathing naked. Diana transformed Acteon into a stag and set his own hunting dogs to kill him. In Campania, Diana had a major temple at Mount Tifata, near Capua. She was worshiped there as "Diana Tifatina". This was one of the oldest sanctuaries in Campania. As a rural sanctuary, it included lands and estates that would have been worked by slaves following the Roman conquest of Campania, and records show that expansion and renovation projects at her temple were funded in part by