Diana and Actaeon the role of the Satyr, with Lydia Ivanova as Diana and Nicholas Efimov as Endymion. In 1886, Petipa incorporated a new "pas de deux," set to music by Riccardo Drigo, into his production of Pugni's "La Esmeralda" for the Maryinsky Ballet, as the Imperial Russian Ballet had come to be called. This "pas de deux" was based on the Greek myth of Artemis (predecessor to the Roman Diana), in her aspect of virgin goddess of the hunt, and Actaeon, a Theban hero. According to Ovid's "Metamorphoses," Actaeon, out on a hunt, stumbled upon Artemis while she was bathing at a
Actaeon Greek context of the mortal's reproach to the amorous goddess is translated to the episode of Anchises and Aphrodite. Daphnis too was a herdsman loved by a goddess and punished by her: see Theocritus' First Idyll. In Greek Mythology, Actaeon is thought by many, including Hans Biedermann, to symbolize ritual human sacrifice in attempt to please a God or Goddess. In the case of Actaeon, the dogs symbolize the sacrificers and Actaeon symbolizes the sacrifice. Actaeon also may symbolize a human curiosity or irreverence. The myth is seen by Jungian psychologist Wolfgang Giegerich as a symbol of spiritual transformation and/or