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Greek vase painters were fond of representing hybrids who had been born as a mix of animals, such as the Chimaera and Pegasus, but also represented "unnatural hybrids, "creatures who were once human but who had been transformed by gods into animals(Actaeon, Callisto) by showing them as animals with lingering human features. I argue that unnatural hybrids articulate the principle that the gods created mortal creatures in particular forms at the beginning of time and that those forms were expected to remain unchanged and limited; the meta of metamorpheo implies passage between forms, rather than the invention of new forms.
I’ll also look at another figure beloved by painters whose story runs contrary to this: Scylla, transformed by Circe’s potion into a new physically hybrid form—human above the waist but canine below. This relatively late story suggests there is another generative power in the cosmos beyond that of the gods: magic.