CALLISTO  , in

Greek mythology, an Arcadian nymph, daughter of Lycaon and companion of Artemis . She was transformed into a bear as a penalty for having borne to Zeus a son, Areas, the ancestor of the Arcadians . Hera, Zeus and Artemis are all mentioned as the authors of the transformation . Areas, when hunting, encountered the bear Callisto, and would have shot her, had not Zeus with swift wind carried up both to the skies, where he placed them as a. constellation . In another version, she was slain by Artemis . Callisto was originally only an epithet of the Arcadian Artemis herself . See Apollodorus iii . 8; Ovid, Metam. ii . 381-530; R . Franz, De Callistus fabula (189o), which deals exhaustively with the various forms of the legend .