Deer in mythology stood in some sort of connexion to Odin's endowment of the dignity of kings." In Greek mythology, the deer is particularly associated with Artemis in her role as virginal huntress. Actaeon, after witnessing the nude figure of Artemis bathing in a pool, was transformed by Artemis into a stag that his own hounds tore to pieces. Callimachus, in his archly knowledgeable "Hymn III to Artemis", mentions the deer that drew the chariot of Artemis: One of the Labors of Heracles was to capture the Cerynian Hind sacred to Artemis and deliver it briefly to his patron, then rededicate it to
Tsar Kandavl or Le Roi Candaule not lovers, but had one association when he stumbled upon her bathing naked with her nymphs, after which, she transformed him into a stag and he was hunted down and killed by his own hunting dogs. However, Petipa's original scheme and Bryullov's painting also contain a mythological inaccuracy in that they both erroneously portray Endymion as the lover of Diana; this is an inaccuracy that appears in several ballets, including Léo Delibes's "Sylvia". In actual fact, Endymion was the lover of Luna the Roman Goddess of the Moon (Selene in Greek mythology) and never had any association with Diana at