Calydonian Boar

The Calydonian Boar was a monstrous wild boar sent by the goddess Artemis to ravage Calydon, a city in Aetolia in the central-west of Greece. It was hunted down by a band of the noblest heroes of Greece, led by Meleager, the son of King Oeneus, and the hunt ended in a quarrel over its hide that cost Meleager his life (Homer, Iliad 9.533–549; Apollodorus, Library 1.8.2–3).

Why Artemis Sent the Boar

Every year, Oeneus, the king of Calydon, offered the first fruits of the harvest to the gods. One year he forgot Artemis alone and left her without a sacrifice, while the other gods feasted on whole hundreds of oxen; Homer says he either forgot or did not think of her, and that he was greatly blinded in his heart (Iliad 9.533–537). Apollodorus likewise says that Oeneus, sacrificing the first fruits of the annual crops to all the gods, forgot Artemis alone (Library 1.8.2). In anger, Artemis sent a wild boar with gleaming tusks. In Homer it uprooted the trees of Oeneus’ orchard, roots and apple blossoms and all (Iliad 9.538–542). In Apollodorus it was a boar of extraordinary size and strength that prevented the land from being sown and destroyed the cattle and the people who met it (Library 1.8.2). Ovid adds that Oeneus had offered grain to Ceres, wine to Bacchus and oil to Minerva, and that the neglected altar of Diana was the only one left without incense (Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.273–283).

The Hunt

Oeneus called together the noblest men of Greece and promised the skin of the beast to the one who killed it (Apollodorus, Library 1.8.2). Homer says Meleager gathered hunters and dogs from many cities, because the boar was so huge that it could not be killed by a few men (Iliad 9.543–546). Apollodorus lists the hunters: Meleager and Dryas from Calydon; Idas and Lynceus; Castor and Pollux; Theseus; Admetus; Ancaeus and Cepheus; Jason; Iphicles; Pirithous; Peleus; Telamon; Eurytion; Atalanta, the daughter of Schoeneus; Amphiaraus; and with them the sons of Thestius, the brothers of Meleager’s mother Althaea (Library 1.8.2). Ovid gives a similar but not identical company (Metamorphoses 8.299–328).

Oeneus entertained the heroes for nine days. On the tenth, Cepheus, Ancaeus and some others refused to hunt with a woman, but Meleager compelled them to go (Apollodorus, Library 1.8.2). In the hunt, Hyleus and Ancaeus were killed by the boar, and Peleus accidentally killed Eurytion with a javelin. Atalanta was the first to wound the boar, shooting it in the back with an arrow; Amphiaraus hit it in the eye; and Meleager killed it with a stab in the flank (Library 1.8.2). Ovid’s version also has Atalanta draw first blood, with an arrow that grazed the animal behind the ear, and Meleager give it the death blow (Metamorphoses 8.380–383, 8.414–429).

The Quarrel over the Hide

Meleager gave the skin of the boar to Atalanta, because she had first wounded it. In Apollodorus, the sons of Thestius were scornful that a woman should get the prize in the presence of men, and took the skin from her, claiming that it was theirs by right of birth if Meleager did not choose to take it. Meleager, in a rage, killed the sons of Thestius and gave the skin back to Atalanta (Library 1.8.2–3). In Ovid, the two uncles who claimed the spoils are Plexippus and Toxeus, and Meleager kills them both (Metamorphoses 8.425–444). Homer, who does not name Atalanta, says only that a great clamour and strife arose over the boar’s head and shaggy hide between the Curetes and the Aetolians (Iliad 9.547–549).

The Death of Meleager

In the best-known version, Althaea, grieving for her slain brothers, kindled the brand on which Meleager’s life depended, and he died. When Meleager was seven days old, the Fates had declared that he would die when the brand burning on the hearth was burnt out, and Althaea had snatched it from the fire and put it away in a chest (Apollodorus, Library 1.8.2–3). In Ovid, the three Fates, spinning, give the same sentence on the log, and Althaea quenches it in water and hides it; later she brings it out and burns it, and Meleager, far away, feels himself burn from within and dies (Metamorphoses 8.451–460, 8.515–525). After his death Althaea and Meleager’s wife Cleopatra hanged themselves, and the women who mourned him were turned into birds (Apollodorus, Library 1.8.3; see also Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.531–546, where Althaea kills herself with a sword and Artemis changes his sisters into birds).

Another Version: The War with the Curetes

Apollodorus mentions a different account, which is the one told in the Iliad. There, the sons of Thestius claim the skin on the ground that Iphiclus had been the first to hit the boar, and the dispute leads to war between the Curetes and the Calydonians (Apollodorus, Library 1.8.3; Homer, Iliad 9.529–532). While Meleager fought, the Curetes could not hold out in front of the walls, but when he was angered by his mother Althaea, who had prayed to Hades and Persephone for his death because he had killed her brother, he stayed at home beside his wife Cleopatra (Iliad 9.550–572). Only when the enemy reached the walls did the citizens persuade him to go out; at the entreaty of his wife he went out, killed the remaining sons of Thestius and fell fighting (Apollodorus, Library 1.8.3). In Homer’s telling, the story is told by Phoenix as an example to Achilles.

The Boar’s Remains

Pausanias describes the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea in Arcadia, where the hunt of the Calydonian boar was shown on the front gable, with the boar in the center and Atalanta, Meleager, Theseus, Telamon, Peleus, Polydeuces, Iolaus and the brothers of Althaea, Prothous and Cometes, beside it (Pausanias 8.45.6). He saw the hide of the boar there, rotted by age and without bristles (Pausanias 8.47.2). The tusks were carried away by the emperor Augustus after his victory over Antony (Pausanias 8.46.1).

Calydonian Boar Sources

Homer, Iliad 9.529–599; Apollodorus, Library 1.8.2–3; Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.260–546; Pausanias 8.45.6, 8.46.1, 8.47.2.

See Also: Artemis, Meleager, Atalanta, Oeneus, Althaea, Theseus, Jason, Peleus, Castor, Pollux