Althaea

Althaea was the daughter of Thestius, wife of King Oeneus of Calydon, and mother of the hero Meleager. In the best-known version of the myth she caused her son’s death by burning the log on which the Fates had said his life depended, after he killed her brothers; in Homer the cause of his death is her curse.

Family

Thestius and Eurythemis, daughter of Cleoboea, had daughters Althaea, Leda and Hypermnestra, and sons Iphiclus, Evippus, Plexippus and Eurypylus (Apollodorus, Library 1.7.10). Althaea married Oeneus, king of Calydon, and had Toxeus, whom Oeneus killed with his own hand because he leaped over the ditch; Thyreus, Clymenus, and a daughter Gorge, whom Andraemon married. Deianira was said to have been fathered on Althaea by Dionysus (Library 1.8.1). Althaea also had a son Meleager, who was Oeneus’ son, though some said that Ares was his father (Library 1.8.2).

The Fates and the Brand

When Meleager was seven days old, according to Apollodorus, the Fates came and declared that he would die when the brand burning on the hearth was burnt out. Althaea snatched up the brand and put it away in a chest (Library 1.8.2). Meleager grew up invulnerable and brave. In Ovid’s telling, the three sister Fates laid a log in the fire while Althaea lay in childbed and gave the newborn the same span of life as the wood; when they had gone, she snatched the burning branch from the fire, quenched it with water and hid it deep in the inner rooms of the palace (Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.451–459).

The Calydonian Boar

When Oeneus offered the first fruits of the harvest to all the gods but forgot Artemis, she sent a boar of enormous size that ravaged the land. Oeneus summoned the noblest men of Greece, promising the skin to the one who killed it. Meleager and Atalanta took part in the hunt, and Meleager gave the skin to Atalanta (Library 1.8.2–3). Homer also mentions Artemis’ anger at Oeneus and the boar that Meleager killed (Homer, Iliad 9.533–546).

Althaea and the Death of Meleager

In Apollodorus, Meleager killed the sons of Thestius – Althaea’s brothers – in a rage over the skin, and in grief for her brothers, Althaea kindled the brand, and Meleager died at once (Library 1.8.3). Ovid describes her struggle at length: Meleager had killed her brothers Plexippus and Toxeus after they took the boar’s skin from Atalanta, and Althaea, torn between sister and mother, finally threw the log into the flames with a trembling hand; Meleager, far away, felt himself burning inside and died as the log turned to ash (Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.432–525). Aeschylus alludes to the same story, when the “wretched Thestias, who killed her child”, burned the red brand coeval with her son’s life since his birth cry (Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 603–611).

Another version

Apollodorus also reports that some said Meleager did not die that way. In this account, when the sons of Thestius claimed the skin because Iphiclus had first wounded the boar, war broke out between the Curetes and the Calydonians. Meleager killed some of Thestius’ sons, and Althaea cursed him. In his anger he stayed at home until the enemy was at the walls, and then, persuaded by his wife, went out, killed the rest of Thestius’ sons, and fell in the fighting (Library 1.8.3). Homer tells this version without the brand. The Curetes and Aetolians fought around Calydon, and Meleager lay beside his wife Cleopatra, angry at his mother. Grieving for the killing of her brother, Althaea had prayed to the gods, striking the earth with her hands and calling on Hades and Persephone to give her son death, and the Fury heard her (Iliad 9.529–572). The Aetolian elders, his sisters and his mother begged him to come out, but he refused until the enemy was at the walls (Iliad 9.573–599).

After Meleager’s death

According to Apollodorus, after Meleager’s death Althaea and Cleopatra hanged themselves, and the women who mourned Meleager were turned into birds. After Althaea’s death Oeneus married Periboea, daughter of Hipponous (Library 1.8.3–4). In Ovid, Althaea punished herself by driving a sword through her own body, and Artemis turned Meleager’s grieving sisters, except Gorge and Deianira, into birds (Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.531–546).

Althaea Sources

Homer, Iliad 9.529–599; Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 603–611; Apollodorus, Library 1.7.10, 1.8.1–4; Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.432–546.

See Also: Oeneus, Meleager, Deianeira, Fates, Calydonian Boar, Atalanta, Artemis, Leda