In Greek mythology, Callisto or Kallisto was a nymph, or the daughter of King Lycaon. She was one of the followers of Artemis, or Diana for the Romans, who attracted Zeus. Zeus transformed himself into the figure of Artemis to seduce her. She became pregnant and when this was discovered, she was expelled from Artemis’s group, after which a furious Hera transformed her into a bear.
About Callisto (mythology) in brief
In Greek mythology, Callisto or Kallisto ) was a nymph, or the daughter of King Lycaon. She was one of the followers of Artemis, or Diana for the Romans, who attracted Zeus. According to some writers, Zeus transformed himself into the figure of Artemis to seduce her. She became pregnant and when this was eventually discovered, she was expelled from Artemis’s group, after which a furious Hera transformed her into a bear. Later, just as she was about to be killed by her son when he was hunting,. she was set among the stars as Ursa Major. She was the bear-mother of the Arcadians, through her son Arcas by Zeus. The fourth Galilean moon of Jupiter and a main belt asteroid are named after Callisti.
The name Kalliste may be recognized as an epithet of the goddess herself. Artemis Kallista was worshiped in Athens in a shrine which lay outside the Dipylon gate, by the side of the road to the Academy. The myth in Catasterismi may be derived from the fact that a set of constellations appear close together in the sky, in and near the sign of Liba Major, Ursa Minor, Boötes, and Virtes, the Hesiodicia as Arcas-warden, the son of Kallistso and Zeus, lived in the country about Lykaion and he is about about about the time of Ovid’s Great Bear’s tale. The bearlike character of Artemis herself was a feature of the Brauronia.
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