Diana, goddess of hunting, gave the huntsman Cephalus a magic dog and spear. Later, Aurora, goddess of dawn, fell in love with the mortal Cephalus and tried to seduce him. He thought only of his wife Procris, however, and rejected her.
Procris feared that Cephalus had been unfaithful and hid in the woods to spy on him while he was hunting. Mistaking the noise she made for that of a wild animal, Cephalus threw his spear and killed her.
The story is from Ovid's, 'Metamorphoses' (7: 701-14). A 15th-century Italian play substituted a happier ending in which Diana resurrects Procris and reunites her with Cephalus, which was the inspiration for Claude's painting 'Landscape with Cephalus and Procris reunited by Diana'.
