The first testimonies to the myth of Actaeon – the man who, in seeking to go beyond his own limits, ended up offending the goddess Artemis and was punished by being changed into a stag - appeared on AttIc vases in the fifth century BC, depicting a male figure being attacked by dogs and threatened by the goddess. The myth became consolidated with the Romans and represents the moment when Actaeon spied the goddess Diana (the Roman name for Artemis) and her nymphs bathing in the river and, on being spotted by her, was transformed into an animal. This theme of voyeurism in relation to the goddess’s naked body has run through the history of art in Europe for more than two thousand years, continuing into the contemporary age, where the myth of Actaeon has been converted into the paradigm for the visual desire of the artist and his or her spectator.

Françoise Frontisi-Ducroux is a lecturer at the Collège de France and a member of CNRS. Her publications include Du Masque au visage. Aspects de l'identité en Grèce ancienne, Ouvrages de dames, the winner of the French Academy’s François Millepierres Prize, and O Homem-Veado e a Mulher-Aranha (Ymago, 2018).