Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis is currently used and recognized as a transition of something, turning into something else. For example, a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, a tapole turning into a frog, though metamoprhosis can also be used and linked to evolution, how ape became man etc. But not all metamorphosis has to be evolutionary linked, it can be a bee turning into an acorn, a gun turning into a flower, a cat turning into heels etc














Origin of a poem by Latin poet Ovid, then into paintings








Actaeon was a hunter from Venice who had been hunting in the mountains while Diana, goddess of the hunt, moon and birthing, washed with her nymphs by a waterfall in the mouth of a cavern. Art had been carved into the rocks of the grotto, one of Diana's nymphs held her javaline, quiver, arrows and unstrung bow, others took off her sandals, another brushed her hair, others gathered water in jars and poured them over Diana's head shoulders. Actaeon stumbled into the grotto and spotted the naked nymphs, who then tried to hide and cover Diana but failed and she turned her back to Actaegon to hide her bare chest and glared at him with a look that could kill as she tried to reach for a weapon but none was nearby, only water.



So she scooped some up in her hand and dashed it at the hunter, cursing him as a rack of antlers burst from his head, his ears became, long and twisted, his neck legthened and narrowed, his hands became hooves, his arms and legs became long and slender. He escaped the cave, amazed at his lightness as he ran, before stopping by a body of water to see his reflection, he thought of either going back home or to live in the forest, but then his hounds had found him and chased him down and ripped him apart, unable to recognize their master as he called out for them to stop. Only when he was dead was when Diana was satisfied with her revenge.


https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/learn-about-art/ovids-metamorphoses



signiture vase is reflected in mirror and further in water, including the brightest white in the painting








Callisto was one of the goddess Diana's favourite nymphs, though when Callisto went to go hunting she was tricked by Jupiter who had disguised themselves as a perfect double of Diana and began to have relations with the nyph, though she did try to fight back. No longer a virgin, she had betrayed the goddess Diana, and by the time she was heavily pregnant and was to bath with Diana and the troop, she tried to make excuses before forceable being stripped.

Seeing the nymphs belly, Diana was outraged at Callisto, though when she gave birth to her son Arcas, her fury exploded and threw her to the ground and began to transform into a bear and was banished from Diana and her troop. When her son Arcas was 15, he had a passion for hunting but knew nothing about his mother but came across her as a bear, out of fear of the beast killing him, he rose his spear to plunge into the bear but was stopped by the fingertip of Jupiter who then carried them both in a whirlwind, reuniting them as they found themselves in space among the stars together as the great bear and the small bear constellations.