Arcas

Callisto hunted with Artemis and wore the same clothing as the goddess. She had sworn to remain a virgin. Zeus desired her and, despite her unwillingness, had intercourse with her. He then changed her into a bear so that Hera would not discover what had happened.

Callisto gave birth to a son, Arcas. Zeus took the child and gave him to Maia to raise in Arcadia. Hera later persuaded Artemis to shoot the bear as a wild animal. In another account, Artemis herself changed Callisto into a bear after seeing that she was pregnant. She then called the hunting pack, and Callisto fled through the woods.

When Arcas had grown, he went hunting and pursued a bear. The bear was Callisto, though he did not know it was his mother. He was about to kill her when Zeus intervened. He caught Callisto up to heaven and changed her into a constellation. Callisto had kept the mind she possessed before her transformation. As a bear, she moved through the woods, avoided hunters and their hounds, and feared other bears and wolves. She could no longer speak, so she could not reveal who she was or ask Arcas to stop.

Zeus desired Callisto, daughter of Lycaon, who was king of the Arcadians. Callisto hunted with Artemis and wore the same clothing as the goddess. She had sworn to remain a virgin. Zeus approached her despite her unwillingness, taking the form of Artemis, or, in another account, Apollo, and fathered a son by her.

Zeus wished to keep the matter hidden from Hera, so he changed Callisto into a bear. Hera persuaded Artemis to shoot her as a wild animal. Another account says that Artemis killed Callisto because she had failed to keep her vow of virginity. A further version says that Artemis discovered Callisto’s pregnancy and changed her into a bear before calling the hunting pack. Zeus then caught Callisto up to heaven, saving her from death. Other accounts say that she was killed before Zeus acted.

After Callisto’s death, Zeus took up her infant son and gave him to Maia to raise in Arcadia. He named the child Arcas. Callisto was placed among the stars as a constellation, called Arctos, the Bear. Arcas survived in Arcadia and later succeeded Lycaon as its king.

Lycaon was the son of Pelasgos and became king of the Arcadians. He fathered fifty sons by several women, and they were described as arrogant and impious. One conflicting account says that Lycaon, angered by Zeus’s intercourse with Callisto, served his grandson Arcas to Zeus as part of a test. Zeus overturned the table and changed Lycaon into a wolf. The accounts therefore connect Arcas’s birth with the house of Lycaon and his later rule in Arcadia, while differing over Callisto’s fate and the circumstances of Lycaon’s downfall.