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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileThis engraving depicts a scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses where Jupiter adopts the form of the huntress Diana to bypass Callisto's vow of chastity. The disguised god is identifiable by the large eagle—Jupiter's primary attribute—partially hidden behind his legs, while a group of nymphs bathes in the distance. The figures are rendered in the elegant, elongated style of the Haarlem Mannerists, set against a dense, textured landscape with a quiver of arrows resting in the foreground.
Hendrick Goltzius's illustrations of Ovid were central to the Northern Renaissance project of 'integumentum,' the practice of interpreting mythological narratives as allegorical veils for astronomical, moral, or natural philosophical truths. The myth of Callisto was particularly significant in the esoteric tradition due to her eventual transformation into the constellation Ursa Major, linking earthly narrative to the celestial movements studied by astrologers and Neoplatonists.
Nonacrina Iouem Calisto inflammat amore. Adgreditur castam callidus ille dolis. Dictynnam simulat, fucisq[ue] armatus opimis Mænalys lucis in sua vota trahit. 6
Translation
Nonacrine Callisto inflames Jupiter with love. The cunning god approaches the chaste one with deceit. He feigns Dictynna, and armed with rich disguises, He draws her to his desires in the Maenalian woods.
Ovid, Metamorphoses
The primary literary source for this scene, which provided the foundational mythic vocabulary for Renaissance Western esoteric thought.
Object
Engraving
mythological
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Image: http://collections.lacma.org/sites/default/files/remote_images/piction/ma-31890217-O3.jpg Gallery: http://collections.lacma.org/node/247493 archive copy at the Wayback Machine
Public domain
2100 × 1474 px
29f89268806ea94ef80ca6fc28ae7ca2c15bddf1
July 19, 2013
March 23, 2026
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 1, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.