Abstract
Comparison of ancient accounts of the myth of Actaeon shows that, while the nature of his offense differs markedly between sources, the form of his death is stable throughout antiquity. This chapter uses observations from Nick Lowe and Ada Neschke-Hentschke about the paradigmatic functioning of myths to consider how the inevitability of Actaeons end could be harnessed to lend specific narrative colouring to retellings. It uses Ovids account of Actaeon in the Metamorphoses to examine the broader ancient tradition, arguing that the identification of Actaeon by name functioned in a meta-poetic manner to hasten his death, and that the inevitability of this death brought with it implicit consideration of the workings of justice in the mythic story-world.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | La mitologia griega en la tradicion literaria: de la Antiguedad a la Grecia contemporanea (Greek mythology in the literary tradition: from Antiquity to contemporary Greece) |
| Editors | M. Alganza Roldan and P. Papadopoulous |
| Place of Publication | Spain |
| Publisher | Centro de Estudios Bizantinos, Neogriegos y Chipriotas |
| Pages | 79-97 |
| Volume | 1 |
| Edition | 1st |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-84-95905-89-5 |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |