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The Hunt for the Wild Boar of Calydon Artemis, goddess of the hunt, pursued a bitter and relentless vengeance upon a king who carelessly slighted her.

In two parts

Music: John Marsh

Photo by Jastrow, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. Source

About this picture …

Meleager slays the wild boar of Calydon, in a scene painted onto a cup in about 555 BC.

The Hunt for the Wild Boar of Calydon

Part 1 of 2

Calydon was an ancient city in Aetolia, on the west coast of mainland Greece near modern Missolonghi. The tale tells how Artemis, goddess of the hunt, took spiteful revenge on a king who slighted her.

WHEN Meleager, son of Oeneus, king of Calydon, was born, the Fates whispered that his life would last no longer than a chip of wood upon the nursery fire. Overhearing them, his mother Althaea sprang to the fire and doused it, locking what remained safely in a chest.

Many years later, Oeneus forgot to honour Artemis in his sacrifices, and the outraged goddess loosed a huge boar in his kingdom, which tore through it destroying crops and homes.

Meleager, now a young man, assembled a formidable hunting party of heroes to deal with the menace, from Jason and Theseus to Castor and Pollux — and also one woman, Atalanta.

Atalanta had been found in the woods as a baby by hunters, and was herself skilled as a hunter. But her presence was a source of constant discord in the party, with Meleager’s uncles especially resentful of a woman.

In fact, everything was going as the vengeful Artemis had planned.

Jump to Part 2

Précis

Oeneus, King of Calydon, offended Artemis and she took revenge by sending a vast wild boar to ravage his kingdom. The king’s son, Meleager, gathered a party of heroes to hunt the boar down, but the inclusion of Atalanta, a woman, sowed discord - which was just what Artemis had hoped would happen. (53 / 60 words)

Part Two

Photo by Jastrow, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. Source

About this picture …

Meleager slays the wild boar of Calydon, in a scene painted onto a cup in about 555 BC.

MELEAGER’S uncles had pooh-poohed a woman in a man’s sport, but it was Atalanta whose arrow wounded the wild boar of Calydon, and after Meleager had killed it, he presented her with the head and hide.

This was too much for his uncles, who demanded that if Meleager resigned it, the hide should pass to them as his nearest male relatives.

Hot with indignation, Maleager drew his sword; but Althaea, watching as her brothers were cut down by her own son, was mad with grief.

She raced over to the chest she had so long kept safe, and threw the blackened wood-chip onto the fire. Before her eyes, Meleager’s life withered away with it in the flames.

Racked by remorse, Althaea took her own life, and Artemis was bitterly revenged on the king who had slighted her.

As for the boar’s hide, that was (so they said) preserved in the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, near Athens, for many centuries.

Copy Book

Précis

Artemis’s wild boar was killed by Meleager, but when he gave the hide to Atalanta his uncles objected, and the prince slew them. Queen Althaea was so grief-stricken that she engineered Meleager’s death by deliberately fulfilling a long-standing prophecy concerning it, and then took her own life. And so Artemis’s bitter vengeance on the king was complete. (57 / 60 words)

Suggested Music

Symphony No. 7 in E flat major ‘La Chasse’ (1790)

3: Allegro - ‘Chasse’

John Marsh (1752-1828)

London Mozart Players, directed by Matthias Bamert.

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