Roman sculpture of a hound attacking a deer in the Hall of Animals in the Museo Pio-Clementino

Roman sculpture of a hound attacking a deer in the Hall of Animals in the Museo Pio-Clementino.
Actaeon was the son of the priestly herdsman Aristaeus and Autonoe in Boeotia. He was a famous Theban hero and like Achilles he was trained by the centaur Chiron. The Hellenistic poet Callimachus, related the most famous version of Actaeon's fate. 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 cursed him saying if he tried to speak, he would be changed into a stag. Upon hearing the call of his hunting party, he cried out to them and was immediately transformed. At this he fled deep into the woods, and doing so he came upon a pond and, seeing his reflection, groaned. His own hounds then turned upon him and pursued him, not recognizing him. In an endeavour to save himself, he raised his eyes toward Mount Olympus but the gods did not heed his plea, and he was torn to pieces. In the second century CE, the traveller Pausanias was shown a spring on the road in Attica leading to Plataea from Eleutherae, just beyond Megara "and a little farther on a rock. It is called the bed of Actaeon, for it is said that he slept thereon when weary with hunting and that into this spring he looked while Artemis was bathing in it" The Greek myth was preceded by similar tales in the Epic of Gilgamesh (tablet Vi) and in the Ugaritic poem about the hero Aqht who was torn apart by eagles incited by Anath who wanted his hunting bow.


Image: Roman sculpture of a hound attacking a deer in the Hall of Animals in the Museo Pio-Clementino, one of the Vatican museums. The display in the two rooms which together make up the Hall of the Animals was set up under Pope Pius VI (1775-1799) with antique works of art, often much restored and sometimes completely re-worked, with the aim of creating a 'stone zoo'. Many artists worked on the sculptures in this display during the 1700s, the most important of whom was Francesco Antonio Franzoni. In some cases, colored marbles were used to allude to the colors of the coat or plumage of various animals. I assume the possibility of alteration in modern times is the reason no date is given for the piece. However, it would have been sculptures like this that adorned the House of the Deer (Casa dei Cervi) in Herculaneum (1st century CE). Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Livioandronico2013.

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