ACTAEON, son of Aris taeus and Autonoe, Boeotian hero and hunter. According to Ovid (Metam., iii. 131), having accidentally seen Artemis on Mt. Cithaeron while she was bathing, he was changed by her into a stag, and pursued and killed by his 5o hounds. His statue was often set up on rocks and mountains as a protection against excessive heat, and the myth itself probably represents the destruction of vegetation during the 5o dog-days. Aeschylus and other tragic poets and artists made use of the story, which is illustrated by a noted small marble group in the British Museum.