| Meleager, the son of Oeneus, King of Aetolians of Calydon (on
other versions, of Ares) and of Althaea, a sister of Leda. Meleager was
the hero of the Calydonian boar-hunt. The goddess Artemis, offended that
Oeneus had forgotten her during annual harvest sacrifice to gods, sent
against Calydon an enormous boar and prescribed as punishment that the
boar should strike men and livestock dead and prevent the fields from being
sown. Meleager organized heroes from all Greece, among them were the Dioscuri,
Theseus, Jason, and many others. There was also Atalanta, whom Meleager
was in love with. The hunt was with many accidents, which not all the heroes
survived, but at last the hunters managed to kill the boar. |