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
Ino (Greek mythology) son, King Pentheus, while struck with Dionysian madness, and Actaeon, son of Autonoe, the third sibling, was torn apart by his own hunting dogs. Also, the insanity of Ino and Athamas, who hunted his own son Learchos as a stag and slew him, can be explained as a result of their contact with Dionysus, whose presence can cause insanity. None can escape the powers of Dionysus, the god of wine. Euripides took up the tale in "The Bacchae", explaining their madness in Dionysiac terms, as a result of their having initially resisted belief in the god's divinity. When Athamas returned