The story of Callisto is the story of the lustfulness, anger and vengefulness that all of the Olympian gods displayed at one point or another. The name of Callisto should not be confused with that of Calypso from the Odyssey, but is one that lives on today with her likeness displayed in the night’s sky.

The story of Callisto starts with the hunt of Artemis. When Artemis went hunting she took a band of followers with her, all of whom were female and all of whom had to take a vow of chastity in order to remain a virgin, in order to accompany her. Callisto was one of these followers, and was the most devoted of all of the nymphs that accompanied the goddess. This devotion ensured that Callisto was considered to be Artemis’ favourite.

The close proximity that Callisto kept with Artemis though brought her to the attention of the other Olympian gods, and in particular the lustful Zeus. In order that he could get close to the nymph though Zeus was forced to transform himself into the identical image of Artemis. On seeing her mentor approach, Callisto was not expecting to have to defend her virtue and before she knew it Zeus had raped her, impregnating her at the same time.

Callisto desperately tried to keep her pregnancy hidden from Artemis but as the pregnancy developed it became something of an impossibility. Callisto’s condition was discovered by Artemis as she took a bath in a forest stream, and was outraged that one of her follower’s had broken her vow. The fact that it had been caused by a fellow god through no fault of Callisto was of no bearing, and so Callisto was sent away from Artemis’ followers to give birth alone.

The act of infidelity by Zeus had not gone unnoticed by his wife, Hera, and rather than act out her anger on her husband she looked for an easier victim. Callisto therefore was transformed into a bear by Hera to roam through the sacred forests and to be hunted by those that she had once hunted with. Zeus though did not lightly abandon his offspring, and so the newborn child, known as Arcas, or bear, was taken by Hermes before Hera could do anything to him. Arcas grew into maturity in the guidance of Maia, mother to Hermes, and became a great hunter himself.

Callisto successfully evaded the hunters for a number of years but fate had its role to play in her life still. The sacred forests had become a favourite hunting ground of Arcas, and one day the paths of mother and son crossed. Arcas saw before him a great prize to be taken, whilst Casllisto saw only her son. Rather than running Callisto walked towards Arcas who raised his hunting spear meaning to kill the bear before him. Zeus though stayed the hand of Arcas taking pity on his conquest. Callisto was transformed into stars and placed them into the night sky becoming the Ursa Major constellation, known colloquially as the Great Bear. Zeus also sought to bring mother and son together again, and Arcas was transformed into Ursa Minor, or the Little Bear.

Hera though felt that she had been robbed of her ultimate revenge, a plan that had been sixteen years in the planning. She could do little to punish either with them in the night’s sky, and so was left with only the possibility of depriving them of water in the future. Thus it was that Hera convinced Oceanus to ensure that the stars of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor would ever travel below the horizon, preventing them from taking a drink from the ocean. This occurrence continued for many hundreds of years after the fall of the Greek supremacy of the Mediterranean, until the changing plain of the earth and sky allows Callisto to dip her legs into the water.

Callisto was a pawn in the life of the gods, favoured by Artemis, a love of Zeus, and a symbol of anger for Hera. She though was ultimately immortalised and allowed to live for ever with her son.