Arcas- Greek DemigodDemigod"King of Arcadia"

Birth and Early Life

Arcas was the son of Zeus and the nymph Callisto, one of Artemis's hunting companions. Zeus approached Callisto disguised as Artemis herself, and the pregnancy that followed led to her expulsion from the goddess's retinue. In Apollodorus's telling, the impious king Lycaon, Callisto's own father, slaughtered the infant Arcas and served his flesh to Zeus at a banquet, testing whether the god could tell human from animal meat. Zeus overturned the table, struck Lycaon's house with lightning, and transformed the king into a wolf. He then reassembled the child and restored him to life.

Ovid gives Callisto's transformation to Hera's jealousy. Apollodorus says Zeus changed her shape himself, hoping to hide the affair. Either way, Hermes rescued the infant and entrusted him to the Titaness Maia on Mount Cyllene.

The Hunting Encounter

Years after Callisto's transformation, the young Arcas was hunting in the forests of Arcadia when he encountered a great bear, his own mother, whom he did not recognize. As he raised his spear to strike, Zeus intervened at the last possible moment. He snatched both mother and son from the earth and placed them among the stars. Callisto became Ursa Major. Arcas became Ursa Minor, or in Eratosthenes' account, the constellation Boötes, forever following his mother across the sky.

Hera, furious that her rivals shone in the heavens, petitioned the sea gods Oceanus and Tethys never to let the Bear constellations set beneath the waves. In northern skies, they never do.

King of Arcadia

Arcas succeeded to the kingship of the region that would bear his name. Triptolemus taught him to cultivate grain, and Arcas brought the knowledge to his people along with bread-making and weaving. Before him, the Arcadians ate acorns and wore hides. After his death, his bones were brought from Mount Maenalus to Mantinea at the command of the Delphic oracle, and his tomb became a site of local veneration.