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Calydonian boar hunt

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Defeat of a mythical boar by Olympian heroes

Fresco depictingAtalanta andMeleager resting after successfully hunting the Calydonian boar

The Calydonian boar hunt shown on a Roman frieze (Ashmolean Museum,Oxford)^[1]

TheCalydonian boar hunt is one of the great heroic adventures in Greek legend.^[2] It occurred in the generation prior to that of theTrojan War, and stands alongside the other great heroic adventure of that generation, the voyage of theArgonauts, which preceded it.^[3] The purpose of the hunt was to kill theCalydonian boar (also called theAetolian boar),^[4] which had been sent byArtemis to ravage the region ofCalydon inAetolia, because its kingOeneus had failed to honour her in his rites to the gods. The hunters, led by the heroMeleager, included many of the foremost heroes of Greece. In most accounts it is also concluded that a great heroine,Atalanta, won its hide by first wounding it with an arrow. This outraged many of the men, leading to a tragic dispute.

Importance in Greek mythology and art

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Tondo of aLaconian black-figure cup by theNaucratis Painter,c. 555 BCE (Louvre)

Since the Calydonian boar hunt drew together numerous heroes^[5]—among whom were many who were venerated as progenitors of their local ruling houses among tribal groups ofHellenes into Classical times—it offered a natural subject in classical art, for it was redolent with the web of myth that gathered around its protagonists on other occasions, around their half-divine descent and their offspring.^{[citation needed]} Like the quest for theGolden Fleece (Argonautica) or theTrojan War that took place the following generation, the Calydonian boar hunt is one of the nodes in which much Greek myth comes together.^{[citation needed]}

Sources

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BothHomer andHesiod and their listeners were aware of the details of this myth, but no surviving complete account exists: somepapyrus fragments found atOxyrhynchus are all that survive ofStesichorus' telling;^[6] the myth repertory calledBibliotheke ("The Library") contains the gist of the tale, and before that was compiled the Roman poetOvid told the story in some colorful detail in hisMetamorphoses.^[7]

Mythology

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The Boar

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The Calydonian boar, metope fragment from theSicyonian Treasury,Delphi Archaeological Museum,Delphi,Greece^[8]

The Calydonian boar is one of several monsters in Greek mythology named for a specific locale. Sent by Artemis to ravage the region of Calydon inAetolia, it met its end in the Calydonian boar hunt, in which many of the great heroes of the age took part (an exception beingHeracles, who vanquished his own Goddess-sentErymanthian boar separately).

KingOeneus ("wine man")^[9] ofCalydon, an ancient city of west-centralGreece north of theGulf of Patras, held annual harvest sacrifices to the gods on the sacred hill. One year the king forgot to include Great "Artemis of the golden throne" in his offerings.^[10] Insulted, Artemis, the "Lady of the Bow", loosed the biggest, most ferociouswild boar imaginable on the countryside of Calydon.

The boar on a Roman sarcophagus, late 2nd century,Archaeological Museum of Piraeus

Ovid describes the boar as follows:^[11]

A dreadful boar.—His burning, bloodshot eyes

seemed coals of living fire, and his rough neck

was knotted with stiff muscles, and thick-set

with bristles like sharp spikes. A seething froth

dripped on his shoulders, and his tusks

were like the spoils of Ind [India]. Discordant roars

reverberated from his hideous jaws;

and lightning—belched forth from his horrid throat—

scorched the green fields.

— Ovid,Metamorphoses 8.284–289 (Brookes More translation)

Ovid goes on to say that the boar rampaged throughout the countryside, destroying vineyards and crops, forcing people to take refuge inside their city walls.^[12]

According toStrabo, the boar was said to be the offspring of theCrommyonian Sow vanquished byTheseus.^[13]

The Hunt

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Oeneus sent messengers out to look for the best hunters in Greece, offering them the boar's pelt and tusks as a prize.^[14]

Roman marble sarcophagus fromVicovaro, carved with the Calydonian Hunt (Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome)

*Meleager et Atalanta*, afterGiulio Romano

Among those who responded were some of theArgonauts, Oeneus' own sonMeleager, and, remarkably for the hunt's eventual success, one woman—the huntressAtalanta, the "indomitable", who had been suckled by Artemis as a she-bear and raised as a huntress, a proxy for Artemis herself (Kerenyi; Ruck and Staples). Artemis appears to have been divided in her motives, for it was also said that she had sent the young huntress because she knew her presence would be a source of division, and so it was: many of the men, led by Kepheus and Ankaios, refused to hunt alongside a woman. It was the smitten Meleager who convinced them.^[15] Nonetheless, it was Atalanta who first succeeded in wounding the boar with an arrow, although Meleager finished it off, and offered the prize to Atalanta, who had drawn first blood. But the sons ofThestius, who considered it disgraceful that a woman should get the trophy where men were involved, took the skin from her, saying that it was properly theirs by right of birth, if Meleager chose not to accept it. Outraged by this,^[16] Meleager slew the sons of Thestius and again gave the skin to Atalanta (Bibliotheke). Meleager's mother, sister of Meleager's slain uncles, took the fatal brand from the chest where she had kept it (seeMeleager) and threw it once more on the fire; as it was consumed, Meleager died on the spot, as the Fates had foretold. Thus Artemis achieved her revenge against King Oeneus.

Woodcut forRaphael Regius's edition ofMetamorphoses,Venice,c. 1518

During the hunt,Peleus accidentally killed his host, Eurytion. In the course of the hunt and its aftermath, many of the hunters turned upon one another, contesting the spoils, and so the Goddess continued to be revenged.^[17] According to Homer "the goddess brought to pass much clamour and shouting concerning his head and shaggy hide, between the Curetes and the great-souled Aetolians."^[18]

The boar's hide that was preserved in the Temple ofAthena Alea atTegea inLaconia was reputedly that of the Calydonian Boar, "rotted by age and by now altogether without bristles" by the timePausanias saw it in the second century CE.^[19] He noted that the tusks had been taken to Rome as booty from the defeated allies ofMark Anthony byAugustus;^[20] "one of the tusks of the Calydonian boar has been broken", Pausanias reports, "the remaining one is kept in the gardens of the emperor, in a sanctuary of Dionysus, and is about half afathom long",^[21] The Calydonian boar hunt was the theme of the temple's main pediment.

The Hunters

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The hunters of the Caledonian boar

From theFrançois Vase,c. 570 BCE

According to theIliad, the heroes who participated in the hunt assembled from all over Greece.^[22]Bacchylides has Meleager describe himself and the rest of the hunters as "the best of the Hellenes".^[23]

The table lists:^[24]

Those seen byPausanias on theTemple of Athena Alea atTegea,^[25] as well as another hero, Ischepolis, mentioned by Pausanias.^[26]
Those listed by Latin mythographerHyginus.^[27]
Those noted inOvid's list from the 8th Book of hisMetamorphoses.^[28]
Those listed by the mythographerApollodorus.^[5]

Hero	Paus.	Hyg.	Ovid	Apd.	Notes
Acastus			✓		Ovid: "swift of dart"^[29]
Admetus		✓	✓	✓	Son of Pheres, fromPherae.
Alcon (son of Hippocoon)		✓			One of three sons ofHippocoon fromAmyclae, according to Hyginus.
Alcon (son of Ares)		✓			Son ofAres from Thrace.
Amphiaraus	✓		✓	✓	Son ofOicles, fromArgos; "As yet unruined by his wicked wife", i.e.Eriphyle.^[30]
Ancaeus	✓	✓	✓	✓	Son ofLycurgus, fromArcadia, killed by the boar. In Ovid's account he wielded a two-headed axe (bipennifer) but he was undone by his boastfulness which gave the boar time enough to charge him: Ancaeus was speared on the boar's tusks at the upper part of the groin and guts burst forth from the gashes it had made.^[31]
Asclepius		✓			Son of Apollo.
Atalanta	✓	✓	✓	✓	Daughter ofSchoeneus, fromArcadia.
Caeneus		✓	✓		Son of Elatus; Ovid notes that Caeneus was "first a woman then a man".^[32]
Castor	✓	✓	✓	✓	Brother of Polydeuces; the Dioscuri, sons ofZeus andLeda, fromLacedaemon.
Cepheus				✓	Son ofLycurgus, brother ofAncaeus.^[5]
Cometes	✓				Son ofThestius, Meleager's uncle.
Cteatus			✓		One of the two sons ofActor, brother ofEurytus.^[33]
Deucalion		✓			Son of Minos.
Dryas of Calydon		✓	✓	✓	Son ofAres (Hyginus notes him as "son of Iapetus").
Echion		✓	✓		One of theArgonauts, son ofHermes andAntianeira, brother of Erytusson; Ovid says "first to hurl his spear".^[34]
Enaesimus		✓	✓		One of three sons ofHippocoon fromAmyclae, according to Hyginus.
Epochus	✓
Euphemus		✓			Son of Poseidon.
Eurypylus				✓	One of the sons ofThestius, according to Apollodorus.^[35]
Eurytion			✓	✓	King of Phtia, accidentally run through with a javelin by Peleus.
Eurytus (son ofHermes)		✓
Eurytus (son ofActor)			✓		One of the two sons ofActor, brother ofCteatus.^[33]
Evippus				✓	One of the sons ofThestius, according to Apollodorus.^[35]
Hippalmus			✓		Along withPelagon, attacked by the Boar, their bodies taken up by their comrades.^[36]^[37]
Hippasus		✓	✓		Son ofEurytus of Oechalia.
Hippothous	✓	✓	✓		Son ofKerkyon, son of Agamedes, son of Stymphalos.
Hyleus		✓	✓
Idas		✓	✓	✓	Son ofAphareus, fromMessene; brother of Lynceus.
Iolaus	✓	✓	✓		Son ofIphicles, nephew of Heracles.
Iphicles				✓	Amphitryon’s mortal son fromThebes, the twin ofHeracles (who took no part).^[5]
Iphiclus				✓	One of the sons ofThestius, according to Apollodorus.^[35]
Ischepolis	✓				Son of Alcathous (not mentioned by Pausanias as having been seen on theTemple of Athena Alea atTegea).^[26]
Jason		✓	✓	✓	Aeson’s son, from Iolkos.
Laertes		✓	✓		Son of Arcesius,Odysseus' father.
Lelex			✓		OfNaryx inLocria.
Leucippus		✓	✓		One of three sons ofHippocoon fromAmyclae, according to Hyginus.
Lynceus		✓	✓	✓	Son of Aphareus, from Messene; brother of Idas.
Meleager	✓	✓	✓	✓	Son ofOeneus.
Mopsus		✓	✓		Son ofAmpycus.
Nestor			✓
Panopeus			✓
Pelagon			✓		Along with Hippalmus, attacked by the Boar, their bodies taken up by their comrades.^[38]
Peleus	✓	✓	✓	✓	Son ofAiakos, father ofAchilles fromPhthia.
Phoenix		✓	✓		Son ofAmyntor, tutor and companion ofAchilles.
Phyleus			✓		FromElis.
Pirithous	✓		✓	✓	Son ofIxion, fromLarissa, the friend of Theseus.
Plexippus		✓	✓	✓	One of the sons ofThestius, according to both Ovid and Apollodorus.^[35]
Polydeuces	✓	✓	✓	✓
Prothous	✓
Telamon	✓	✓	✓	✓	Son ofAeacus.
Theseus	✓	✓	✓	✓	Faced another dangerous creature, the dusky wildCrommyonian Sow, on a separate occasion, which according toStrabo,^[13] was said to be the mother of the Calydonian boar.
Toxeus			✓		One of the sons ofThestius, according to Ovid.^[35]

Modern

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In the 19th century,Algernon Charles Swinburne wrote the playAtalanta in Calydon which retells the Greek myth of the Calydonian boar hunt. The play was republished in 1901 in the bookAtalanta in Calydon: and lyrical poems.

Notes

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^Ex-collection the textiles merchantSir Francis Cook, assembled in Victorian times at Doughty House, in Richmond, south-west London.
^Hard, p. 415, calls it "the greatest adventure in Aetolian legend".
^Hard, p. 416, describes the boar-hunt as being "almost as famous" as the voyage of the Argonauts.
^Rose,p. 66.
^^a ^b ^c ^dApollodorus,1.8.2.
^Strabo,Geography10.3.6, referring to events of the hunt, does remark "as the poet says".
^Xenophon,Cynegetica x provides some details of boar-hunting in reality; for other classical sources related to boar hunting see Aymard, pp. 297–329.
^TheUniversity of Michigan Library, Collection: "Art Images for College Teaching", IDGAS170, title: "Treasury of Sikyon, Delphi: the Calydonian Boar, fragment of a metope".
^Hard, p. 413; Kerényi, p. 115.
^Homer,Iliad9.533ff.; the poet's concern is with Meleager's role in the battle begun over the boar's carcass, which embroiled Meleager and theCuretes, who were attacking his city ofCalydon, rather than with the hunt itself, which he swiftly summarizes in a handful of lines.
^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.284–289.
^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.290–299.
^^a ^bStrabo,Geography8.6.22.
^The pelt remained a trophy at the temple ofTegea, which was enriched with prominent reliefs of the Calydonian boar hunt, in which the Boar took the central place in the composition. The temple, however, was dedicated not to Artemis, but to that other Virgin Goddess,Athena Alea.
^Euripides, fragment 520, noted by Kerényi, p. 119, with note 673.
^According toDiodorus Siculus,4.34.4, "He had honoured a stranger woman above them and set kinship aside".
^Kerényi, p. 115.
^Homer,Iliad9.547–549.
^Pausanias,8.47.2.
^Pausanias,8.46.1.
^Pausanias,8.46.5. According to Mayor, pp. 142–143, such a tusk, almost a meter in length, would most likely have been a prehistoric elephant tusk.
^Homer,Iliad9.543–544.
^Bacchylides,5.111.
^For alphabetical lists of the hunters given byPausanias,Hyginus,Ovid, andApollodorus, see Parada, s.v. CALYDONIAN HUNTERS.
^Pausanias,8.45.6–7.
^^a ^bPausanias,1.42.6.
^Hyginus,Fabulae 173.
^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.299—317, 360.
^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.306.
^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.316–317.
^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.391—402.
^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.305.
^^a ^bOvid,Metamorphoses8.308, says only that Actor's two sons (Actoridaeque pares) took part in the hunt, without naming them, elsewhere they areEurytus and Cteatus, seeApollodorus,2.7.2 with Frazer's note 2.
^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.345.
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^eAccording to both Ovid and Apollodorus, the sons ofThestius took part in the hunt, scorned Atalanta, demanded the boar's skin, and were killed by Meleager (Ovid,Metamorphoses8.432–444;Apollodorus,1.8.2–3). In Ovid's account of the hunt, the sons were Plexippus and Toxeus; Apollodorus, in his account does, not say who the sons were, but elsewhere (1.7.10) he says the sons were Plixippus, Eurypylus, Evippus, and Iphiclus.
^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.360–361 (Miller translation revised by Goold); Parada, s.vv. CALYDONIAN HUNTERS, Hippalmus 1.
^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.360 (Latin ed.Hugo Magnus)
^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.360–361 (Miller translation revised by Goold); Parada, s.vv. CALYDONIAN HUNTERS, Pelagon 3.

References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related toCalydonian Boar.

Apollodorus,Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Aymard, J.,Essai sur les chasses romaines, Paris 1951.
Bacchylides,Odes, translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1991.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Diodorus Siculus,Diodorus Siculus: The Library of History. translated by C. H. Oldfather, twelve volumes,Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts:Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.Online version by Bill Thayer.
Hard, Robin,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004,ISBN 9780415186360.Google Books.
Hyginus, Gaius Julius,Fabulae inApollodorus'Library and Hyginus'Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007.ISBN 978-0-87220-821-6.
Homer,The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Kerényi, Karl (1959),The Heroes of the Greeks, Thames and Hudson, London, 1959.
Mayor, Adrienne,The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times, Princeton University Press, 2011.ISBN 978-0-691-15013-0.
Ovid,Metamorphoses, Brookes More, Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Ovid.Metamorphoses, Volume I: Books 1-8. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold.Loeb Classical Library No. 42. Cambridge, Massachusetts:Harvard University Press, 1977, first published 1916.ISBN 978-0-674-99046-3.Online version at Harvard University Press.
Parada, Carlos,Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology, Jonsered, Paul Åströms Förlag, 1993.ISBN 978-91-7081-062-6.
Pausanias,Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Rose, Carol,Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth,W. W. Norton, 2001.ISBN 9780393322118.
Ruck, Carl A.P., and Danny Staples, 1994.The World of Classical Myth, p. 196
Strabo,Geography, translated by Horace Leonard Jones; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. (1924).LacusCurtis,Online version at the Perseus Digital Library, Books 6–14.
Swinburne, Algernon Charles. "Atalanta in Calydon"*