Ursa Major

Ian Blum

Artemis gathered about her a number of young nymphs. Reflecting her own vows on chastity, she also required complete fidelity from these young women (girls actually, who would grow into womanhood). One of these was Callisto.

Zeus had the habit of seducing young maidens, and eventually he got around to Callisto. When Artemis discovered that Callisto was pregnant, she took her revenge. Artemis loved to hunt; she would take her revenge in the chase. So she changed Callisto into a bear. (Remember that Artemis is the same goddess that caught Actaeon watching her bath. She turned him into a stag then set his own hounds on him. They ripped him to pieces.)

So Artemis's plan was to have Callisto, as a bear, hunted down and killed. But Zeus took pity, and sent Callisto to the heavens, keeping the same form of a bear. Her son Arcas would grow up to be the ancestral founder of the Arcadians, before he too joined his mother in the heavens as Ursa Minor.

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