Meleager (Vienna)

 monument, sculpture

Meleager was the son of Oeneus, the king of Calydon, and Althaea. When Meleager was born, the Fates declared he would live until a brand, burning in the family hearth, was consumed by fire. Althaea took the brand from the hearth and carefully preserved it. Years later, when Meleager was a young man, his father neglected to offer a sacrifice to Artemis at a festival, and in anger, the goddess sent a large boar to ravage Calydon. Oeneus instructed Meleager to bring together heroes from all over Greece to hunt the boar that was terrorizing their land. Among these heroes, Meleager chose Atalanta, a fierce huntress, whom he loved. When two centaurs, Hylaeus and Rhaecus, tried to rape Atalanta, Meleager killed them. During the hunt, Atalanta wounded the boar, and later Meleager killed it, awarding her the hide because she drew the first drop of blood. When Althaea heard about her son's killing of the centaurs, she burned the brand, and Meleager soon died. The story appears in Homer's epic poem Iliad (IX, 529–99).