The gate of the year

Figure on the left:

Painting on Apulian vase representing the Nymph Kallisto, dating to 380-370 B.C. and now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA, USA.

Figure on the right:

Fragment of Apulian vase (380-370 B.C.) now in the Museum of Fine Arts di Boston, MA, USA.

Kallisto (whose name signifies literally “the most beautiful”) was a Nymph living in Arcadia and belonging to the retinue that accompanied Artemis during the hunts among woodlands and mountains. Fallen in love with her, Zeus seduced the Nymph, assuming, according to some of the versions, Artemis’s appearance. The jealousy of Hera, Zeus’s wife, or the rage of Artemis because of her betrayal, determined Kallisto’s transformation into a she-bear. From the union with the father of the gods a child was generated, Arcas, who became the ancestor of the inhabitants of Arcadia and in whose name still remains a reference to the bear (arktos). Kerényi reports that in some sources Pan was regarded as son of Zeus and Kallisto (Kerenyi, 1951, p.163). It was told that the young Arcas, grown up and become a valiant hunter, pursued unknowingly his own mother, in the shape of a bear, and, when he was on the point of killing her, the intervention of Zeus transformed both of them into constellations: the Great Bear and the Little Bear. The vase paintings catch in an efficacious way the moment in which the Nymph begins to transform herself into an animal: the ears become pointed, the hands change into claws and the body begins to be covered with hair.

[Source: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Zürich, Artemis Verlag, vol.V/2, 1990, p. 604-605]




Human-Animal Transformation

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Figure on the left: Painting on Apulian vase representing the Nymph Kallisto, dating to 380-370 B.C. and now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA, USA. Figure on the right: Fragment of Apulian vase (380-370 B.C.) now in the Museum of Fine Arts di Boston, MA, USA. Kallisto (whose name signifies literally “the most beautiful”) was a Nymph living in Arcadia and belonging to the retinue that accompanied Artemis during the hunts among woodlands and mountains. Fallen in love with her, Zeus seduced the Nymph, assuming, according to some of the versions, Artemis’s appearance. The jealousy of Hera, Zeus’s wife, or the rage of Artemis because of her betrayal, determined Kallisto’s transformation into a she-bear. From the union with the father of the gods a child was generated, Arcas, who became the ancestor of the inhabitants of Arcadia and in whose name still remains a reference to the bear (arktos). Kerényi reports that in some sources Pan was regarded as son of Zeus and Kallisto (Kerenyi, 1951, p.163). It was told that the young Arcas, grown up and become a valiant hunter, pursued unknowingly his own mother, in the shape of a bear, and, when he was on the point of killing her, the intervention of Zeus transformed both of them into constellations: the Great Bear and the Little Bear. The vase paintings catch in an efficacious way the moment in which the Nymph begins to transform herself into an animal: the ears become pointed, the hands change into claws and the body begins to be covered with hair. [Source: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Zürich, Artemis Verlag, vol.V/2, 1990, p. 604-605]