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 ...

, Meleager (, ) was a

hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...

venerated in his '' temenos'' at Calydon in Aetolia. He was already famed as the host of the

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, ...

in the epic tradition that was reworked by

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 ...

. Meleager is also mentioned as one of the Argonauts.

Biography

Meleager was a Calydonian prince as the son of Althaea and the vintner King Oeneus or according to some, of the god

Ares Ares (; , ''Árēs'' ) is the List of Greek deities, Greek god of war god, war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent towards him. He embodies the physical valor necessary for ...

. He was the brother of Deianeira, Toxeus, Clymenus, Periphas, Agelaus (or Ageleus), Thyreus (or Phereus or Pheres),

Gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...

, Eurymede and Melanippe. Antoninus Liberalis
2
as cited in Nicander's ''Metamorphoses'' Meleager was the father of Parthenopeus by

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

but he married

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

, daughter of Idas and Marpessa. They had a daughter, Polydora, who became the bride of

Protesilaus In Greek mythology, Protesilaus (; ) was a Greek hero, hero in the ''Iliad'' who was venerated at Temenos, cult sites in Thessaly and Thrace. Protesilaus was the son of Iphiclus (mythology), Iphiclus, a "lord of many sheep"; as grandson of the e ...

, who left her bed on their wedding-night to join the expedition to

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

Mythology

Calydonian boar hunt

When Meleager was born, the Moirai (the Fates) predicted he would only live until a piece of wood, then burning in the family hearth, was consumed by fire. Overhearing them, Althaea immediately doused and hid it. Oeneus sent Meleager to gather up heroes from all over Greece to hunt the Calydonian boar that had been terrorizing the area and rooting up the vines, as Oeneus had omitted

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 ...

at a festival in which he honored the other gods. In addition to the heroes he required, he chose

, a fierce huntress, whom he loved. According to one account of the hunt, when Hylaeus and Rhaecus, two

centaur A centaur ( ; ; ), occasionally hippocentaur, also called Ixionidae (), is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. In one version o ...

s, tried to rape Atalanta, Meleager killed them. Then Atalanta wounded the boar and Meleager killed it. He awarded her the hide since she had drawn the first drop of blood. Meleager's uncles Toxeus, the "archer", and

Plexippus In Greek mythology, Plexippus or Plexippos (Ancient Greek: Πλήξιππος means "striking") is a name that refers to: * Plexippus, a Pleuron (Aetolia), Pleuronian prince as the son of King Thestius of Pleuron, Aetolia, Pleuron and Eurythemis, ...

grew enraged that the prize was given to a woman. Meleager killed them in the following argument. He also killed Iphicles and Eurypylus for insulting Atalanta. When Althaea found out that Meleager had killed her brothers, she placed the piece of wood that she had stolen from the Fates (the one that the Fates predicted, once engulfed with fire, would kill Meleager) upon the fire, thus fulfilling the prophecy and killing Meleager, her own son. Meleager's sisters who mourned his death excessively were turned into

guineafowl Guinea fowl () (or guineahen) are birds of the family Numididae in the order Galliformes. They are endemic to Africa and rank among the oldest of the gallinaceous birds. Phylogenetically, they branched off from the core Galliformes after the C ...

(''meleagrides'').

Afterlife

In the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

, his was the only shade that did not flee

Heracles Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...

, who had come after

Cerberus In Greek mythology, Cerberus ( or ; ''Kérberos'' ), often referred to as the hound of Hades, is a polycephaly, multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Greek underworld, underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. He was the offspring o ...

. In Bacchylides' Ode V, Meleager is depicted as still in his shining armor, so formidable, in Bacchylides' account, that Heracles reached for his bow to defend himself. Heracles was moved to tears by Meleager's account; Meleager had left his sister Deianira unwedded in his father's house, and entreated Heracles to take her as his bride; here Bacchylides breaks off his account of the meeting, without noting that in this way Heracles in the underworld chooses a disastrous wife. According to

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

Natural History Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

, Book 37, Chapter 11,

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

believed that

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin. Examples of it have been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since the Neolithic times, and worked as a gemstone since antiquity."Amber" (2004). In Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen (eds.) ''Encyclopedia ...

is produced in the countries beyond India, from the tears that are shed for Meleager, by the birds called "meleagrides".

Influences

Among the Romans, the heroes assembled by Meleager for the Calydonian hunt provided a theme of multiple nudes in striking action, to be portrayed frieze-like on sarcophagi. Meleager's story has similarities with the Scandinavian '' Norna-Gests þáttr''.

Family tree

Gallery

File:Giulio Romano - Meleager et Atalanta.jpg, ''Meleager et Atalanta'', after Giulio Romano File:Meleagros Antikensammlung Berlin Sk215.jpg, Statue of Meleager modeled after Skopas File:Calydonian hunt Musei Capitolini MC917.jpg, Meleager sarcophagus File:Jacob Jordaens - Meleager and Atalanta, 1620-1650.jpg, ''Meleager and Atalanta'' (17th century) by

Jacob Jordaens Jacques (Jacob) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678Jacques Jordaens
in the Netherlands Institute for Ar ...

File:S03 06 01 021 image 2609.jpg, Volterra, Italy. Etruscan cinerary urn; Hunt of Maleager, Volterra. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection File:S03 06 01 020 image 2583.jpg, Meleager, Scopas' influence. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection File:Flemish - Meleager and Atalanta Setting Out to Hunt the Calydonian Boar - Walters 829 - View C.jpg, ''Meleager and Atalanta Setting Out to Hunt the Calydonian Boar'', tapestry,

Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum is a public art museum located in the Mount Vernon, Baltimore, Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded and opened in 1934, it holds collections from the mid-19th century that were amassed substantially ...

File:Meleagrosz-tál.jpg, Meleager plate File:Meleagrosz-tál (2).jpg, Meleager plate (detail) File:BLW Meleager.jpg, Renaissance sculpture of Meleager by Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, who was known by his contemporaries as L'Antico. V&A Museum.

References

Sources

* Bacchylides Fr 5.93 * Apollonius Rhodius, ''

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, 190–201. * Apollodorus, I, viii, 1–3. *

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 ...

, ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...

'' VIII, 269–525.

External links

The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Meleager)
* {{Authority control Argonauts Princes in Greek mythology Family of Calyce (mythology) Children of Ares Mythological Aetolians Characters in the Argonautica Aetolian mythology Mythology of Heracles