Metamorphoses by Ovid

Ovid's poem begins with the creation of the world. He describes a mixture of scientific and supernatural terms. He talks about both the creation of human beings, the Four Ages of early humanity, followed by the great flood that wipes out the human race except for a greek man named Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha. The earth is repopulated and Ovid begins talking about various strange occurrences involving everyone including, gods, demigods and mortals. In theory I think these stories are meant to follow each other in time though in practice it does get more confusing and complicated. There are a lot of flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks. If anything it makes for an interesting read.

Diana and Actaeon 

Book three of Metamorphoses starts of with the story of Cadmus and his search for his sister. Ovid tells us that Cadmus ended up having a very nice life, beautiful wife, kids etc. But he also says you shouldn't consider a man happy until he's dead. He tells us that, in Cadmus's case, the trouble started when his grandson Actaeon was turned into a stag.

On the day in question, Actaeon and his friends are out hunting in the forest. They kill lots of animals and the ground 'is stained with blood'. Nearby, there is a valley containing a cave, in the cave is a spring, where Diana and her nymphs like to bathe. It just so happens that Diana had picked that day to go there with her nymphs and it just so happens that Actaeon wanders into that same cave. As he enters Diana and the nymphs are all in a state of undress bathing in the spring water. Actaeon is shocked and the nymphs crowed around Diana to hide her but Diana is already furious and splashes the spring water on Actaeon. In that instant he transforms into a stag and runs out the cave. He is then hunted by his own dogs and is mauled to death. Actaeon's friends and fellow hunters cheer the dogs on simultaneously wondering where Actaeon is as he's missing the action. 

The story became very popular during the Renaissance and the most common scene shown was Actaeon surprising Diana. But often his transformation and his death were also sometimes shown. Titian painted the first two scenes in his greatest late poesies for Phillip ll of Spain in Diana and Actaeon and The Death of Actaeon.