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Μελέαγρος
Enclosing the eastern side of the Saepta, the Porticus Meleagri commemorates the deeds of the hero Meleager of Calydon
The Hero
Meleager was the son of Althaea and Oeneus of Calydon. When he was born, the Moirae (Fates) revealed to his mother a prophecy: Meleager would die when a log burning in the family hearth was consumed. Althaea took the log out of the fire and hid it in a chest. Red-haired Meleager grew up into a skillful warrior, invulnerable to harm. When Jason sailed to Colchis to recover the Golden Fleece, Meleager was one of the heroes of Hellas who joined the crew of the Argo. Upon his return home, Meleager married Cleopatra, the daughter of the hero Idas, one of his fellow Argonauts.
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His most famous feat, however, was killing the Calydonian Boar. This ferocious monster was unleashed on Calydon, a city in the western part of central Greece, when King Oeneus neglected to include Artemis in his annual sacrifices to the gods. The monstrous Boar ravaged the countryside around Calydon with the power to strike men and livestock dead and to prevent the fields from being sown, leaving the people to starve. The Calydonians were forced to leave their homes and take refuge inside the city's walls as the monster continued its rampage.
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For Artemis,
She of the golden chair, had driven this evil upon them,
angered that Oineus had not given the pride of the orchards
to her, first fruits; the rest of the gods were given due sacrifice,
but alone to this daughter of great Zeus he had given nothing,
He had forgotten, or had not thought, in his hard delusion,
and in wrath at his whole mighty line the Lady of Arrows
sent upon them the fierce wild boar with the shining teeth, who
after the way of his kind did much evil to the orchards of Oineus.
For he ripped up whole trees from the ground and scattered them headlong
roots and all, even to the very flowers of the orchard.
Homer, Iliad, (Book 9: 532-542), trans. by Richmond Lattimore
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The Hunt
To defeat the Boar, King Oeneus appealed for help to the best hunters in Greece, and offered the Boar's pelt and tusks as a prize. Many heroes responded to the call, including some of the Argonauts -- Theseus, Jason, Castor and Pollux -- and the huntress Atalanta. Atalanta had been sent by Artemis to create division among the men. Many of them refused to hunt with her, but Meleager fell in love with the beautiful Atalanta, so skilled with the bow.
Meleager led the dangerous hunt. Several of the hunters were killed or wounded, including Enasimus of Sparta, Hyleus, and Hippasus. Peleus accidentally killed Eurytion, his father-in-law, with his miscast spear. Atalanta was the first to wound the Boar with an arrow. The mighty Meleager finally slew the beast with a thrust of his spear.
Dissension followed the successful hunt for the Boar. Meleager gave the monster's hide to Atalanta as a prize for drawing first blood, but this caused an argument with the other hunters. The brothers of Meleager’s mother, Toxeus and Plexippus, robbed Atalanta of the hide, causing fighting among the hunting party. In the ensuing battle, Meleager killed Toxeus and Plexippus.
The son of Oineus killed this boar, Meleagros, assembling
together many hunting men out of numerous cities
with their hounds; since the boar might not have been killed by a few men,
so huge was he, and had put many men on the sad fire for burning.
But the goddess again made a great stir of anger and crying
battle, over the head of the boar and the bristling boar’s hide,
between Kouretes and the high-hearted Aitolians.
Homer, Iliad, (Book 9: 543-549), trans. by Richmond Lattimore
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In Death
Distraught over the deaths of her brothers, Althaea took the hidden log from its chest and put it into a fire. As the brand burned down to ash, Meleager fell ill and died. In despair over his death, Meleager’s mother and wife hanged themselves. His sisters wept so much over his death that Artemis took pity and changed them into guinea hens.
When Meleager sailed with the Argonauts, he had such a reputation for boldness that Heracles gave the younger hero the honor of rowing beside him. When Heracles went to the Underworld to fetch Cerberus in his Twelfth Labor, he encountered Meleager’s shade. All the other shades in Hades fled from Hercules, except for Meleager and the Gorgon Medusa. Heracles promised Meleager that he would court and marry Deianeira, Meleager's young sister.
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Table border and background designs from Eos Development. Greek keys border from Architectural Engineering Graduate Student Association of the Pennsylvania State University. Inset background by Bari Augustus.
Méléagre, Louis-Simon Boizot, Louvre: Wikipedia Commons media files. -- Detail of Meleager, Roman copy of a statue attributed to Skopas, Vatican: copyright Cambridge 2000 Gallery, non-commercial use permitted. -- Florentine boar, bronze statuette, Victoria & Albert Museum: V&A Activities.
Artemis, Greek stamp image: Hellenica. -- Relief from an Attic sarcophagus, c. 2nd century A.D. in the Roman Eleusis Museum, Attica, Greece: VRoma Project image galleries. -- Detail from The Calydonian Boar Hunt, c. 1611/12, Peter Paul Rubens, now in the Getty Museum: Hoocher.
Meleager’s Hunt, Nicolas Poussin, Prado: ABC Gallery. -- Meleager statue, Roman copy, Pergamon Museum, Berlin: Wikipedia Commons media files.
Sources:
Article on the Calydonian Boar Hunt at Timeless Myths.
Articles on Meleager and Calydonian Boar at Hellenica web site.
Homer, Iliad, translated by Richard Lattimore, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1951).
Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8.45-47.
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Bonus! Porticus Meleagri
Guestbook and Notes (12 posts)
All 12 posts...Recommended (* M. Fabius Furius, Jul 3, 2008 - 21:13 )
