Actaeon which Actaeon is recognized, both in ancient art and in Renaissance and post-Renaissance depictions. Among others, John Heath has observed, "The unalterable kernel of the tale was a hunter's transformation into a deer and his death in the jaws of his hunting dogs. But authors were free to suggest different motives for his death." In the version that was offered by the Hellenistic poet Callimachus, which has become the standard setting, Artemis was bathing in the woods when the hunter Actaeon stumbled across her, thus seeing her naked. He stopped and stared, amazed at her ravishing beauty. Once seen, Artemis
Diana Bathing with her Nymphs with Actaeon and Callisto Diana Bathing with her Nymphs with Actaeon and Callisto Diana Bathing with her Nymphs with Actaeon and Callisto is a 1634 painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn. It is now on show in the Salm-Salm princely collection in the Wasserburg Anholt in Anholt, Germany. It shows two episodes from Ovid's "Metamorphoses", in both of which someone is punished by the goddess Diana for a sexual offence. On the left, Actaeon is punished for seeing the goddess naked by being turned into a stag and killed by his own hounds. On the right, Diana's other nymphs are tearing off