In
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
, the Erymanthian boar (
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
: ὁ Ἐρυμάνθιος κάπρος;
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
: ''aper Erymanthius'') was a mythical creature that took the form of a "shaggy and wild"
"tameless"
"boar"
"of vast weight"
"and foaming jaws".
It was a
Tegeaean,
or
Erymanthian boar that lived in the "glens of
Lampeia"
beside the "vast marsh of Erymanthus".
It would sally
from the "thick-wooded",
"cypress-bearing"
"heights of Erymanthus"
to "harry the groves of
Arcady"
and "abuse the land of
Psophis".
Mythology
The fourth
labour of Heracles was to bring the Erymanthian boar alive to
Eurystheus
In Greek mythology, Eurystheus (; , ) was king of Tiryns, one of three Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean strongholds in the Argolid, although other authors including Homer and Euripides cast him as ruler of Argos, Peloponnese, Argos.
Family
Eurysthe ...
in
Mycenae
Mycenae ( ; ; or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines, Greece, Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos, Peloponnese, Argos; and sou ...
.
To capture the boar, Heracles first "chased the boar with shouts"
and thereby routed it from a "certain thicket"
and then "drove the exhausted animal into deep snow."
He then "trapped it",
bound it in chains,
and lifted it, still "breathing from the dust",
and returning with the boar on "his left shoulder",
"staining his back with blood from the stricken wound",
he cast it down in the "entrance to the assembly of the Mycenaeans",
thus completing his fourth labour. "When the king
urystheussaw him carrying the boar on his shoulders, he was terrified and hid himself in a bronze vessel."
"The inhabitants of
Cumae
Cumae ( or or ; ) was the first ancient Greek colony of Magna Graecia on the mainland of Italy and was founded by settlers from Euboea in the 8th century BCE. It became a rich Roman city, the remains of which lie near the modern village of ...
, in the land of the
Opici, profess that the boar's tusks which are preserved in the sanctuary of
Apollo
Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
at Cumae are the tusks of the Erymanthian boar, but the assertion is without a shred of probability."
In the primitive highlands of
Arcadia, where old practices lingered, the Erymanthian boar was a giant fear-inspiring creature of the wilds that lived on
Mount Erymanthos
Mount Erymanthos (, Latin: ''Erymanthus'') overall is an irregular massif of peaks connected by ridges embedded in the mountains located in the north of the Peloponnese, Greece. Erymanthos is on the west side. Its highest peak, Olenos or Olonos ...
, a mountain that was apparently once sacred to the
Mistress of the Animals, for in classical times it remained the haunt of
Artemis
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...
(
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
, ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...
'', VI.105). A boar was a dangerous animal: "When the goddess turned a wrathful countenance upon a country, as in the story of
Meleager
In Greek mythology, Meleager (, ) was a hero venerated in his '' temenos'' at Calydon in Aetolia. He was already famed as the host of the Calydonian boar hunt in the epic tradition that was reworked by Homer. Meleager is also mentioned as o ...
, she would send a raging boar, which laid waste the farmers' fields."
[Kerenyi (1959), p. 149.]
Cultural depictions
Chronological listing of classical literature sources for the Erymanthian boar:
* Sophocles, ''Trachiniae'' 1097 (trans. Jebb) (Greek tragedy C5th BC)
* Apollonius Rhodius, ''Argonautica'' 1. 67-111 (trans. Coleridge) (Greek epic poetry C3rd BC)
* Callimachus, ''Epigrams'' 36 (trans. Mair) (Greek poetry C3rd BC)
* Diodorus of Sicily, ''Library of History'' 4. 12. 1-2 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek history C1st BC)
* Virgil, ''Aeneid'' 6. 801 ff (trans. Dewey) (Roman epic poetry C1st BC)
* Lucretius, ''Of The Nature of Things'' 5. Proem 1 (trans. Leonard) (Roman philosophy C1st BC)
* Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 9. 191 (trans. Melville) (Roman epic poetry C1st BC to C1st AD)
* Ovid, ''Heroides'' 9. 87 ff (trans. Showerman) (Roman poetry C1st BC to C1st AD)
* Philippus of Thessalonica, ''The Twelve Labors of Hercule''s (''The Greek Classic''s ed. Miller Vol 3 1909 p. 397) (Greek epigrams C1st AD)
* Seneca, ''Hercules Furens'' 228 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st AD)
* Seneca, ''Hercules Oetaeus'' 17-30 (trans. Miller)
* Statius, ''Thebaid'' 4. 297 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic poetry C1st AD)
* Statius, ''Thebaid'' 8. 746 ff
* Plutarch, ''Moralia'', On the Fortune of Alexander 341. 11 ff (trans. Babbitt) (Greek philosophy C1st AD to C2nd AD)
* Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''The Librar''y 2. 5. 3-4 (trans. Frazer) (Greek mythography C2nd AD)
* Pseudo-Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 30 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythography C2nd AD)
* Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 8 24. 5-6 (trans. Frazer) (Greek travelogue C2nd AD)
* Quintus Smyrnaeus, ''Fall of Troy'' 6. 220 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic poetry C4th AD)
* Nonnus, ''Dionysiaca'' 25. 194 (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic poetry C5th AD)
* Nonnos, ''Dionysiaca'' 25. 242 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic poetry C5th AD)
* Boethius, ''The Consolation of Philosophy'' 4. 7. 13 ff (trans. Rand & Stewart) (Roman philosophy C6th AD)
* Suidas s.v. ''Dryopes'' (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek Lexicon C10th AD)
* Tzetzes, ''Chiliades'' or ''Book of Histories'' 2. 268 ff (trans. Untila et al.) (Byzantinian history C12 AD)
* Tzetzes, ''Chiliades'' or ''Book of Histories'' 2. 494 ff
See also
*
Calydonian boar hunt
The Calydonian boar hunt is one of the great heroic adventures in Greek legend. It occurred in the generation prior to that of the Trojan War, and stands alongside the other great heroic adventure of that generation, the voyage of the Argonauts, ...
*
References
External links
*
Graves, Robert, ''The Greek Myths'' 1955.
*
Kerenyi, Karl, ''The Heroes of the Greeks'' 1959.
*
Carl A. P. Ruck
Carl Anton Paul Ruck (born December 8, 1935, Bridgeport, Connecticut) is a professor in the Classical Studies department at Boston University. He received his B.A. at Yale University, his M.A. at the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. at Harvar ...
and Danny Staples, ''The World of Classical Myth,'' 1994.
*
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...
, ''Heroides''
*Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''
Bibliotheca'' ii.5.4
*
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...
iv.12
*
Apollonius of Rhodes
Apollonius of Rhodes ( ''Apollṓnios Rhódios''; ; fl. first half of 3rd century BC) was an ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek author, best known for the ''Argonautica'', an epic poem about Jason and the Argonauts and their quest for the Go ...
, ''
Argonautica
The ''Argonautica'' () is a Greek literature, Greek epic poem written by Apollonius of Rhodes, Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only entirely surviving Hellenistic civilization, Hellenistic epic (though Aetia (Callimachus), Callim ...
'' i.122ff
*
Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' i.27.
Greek Mountain Flora
{{Labours of Heracles
Labours of Hercules
Monsters in Greek mythology
Mythological pigs
Arcadian mythology
Wild boars