MELE'.AGER, a legendary Greek hero, whose name is connected with the Argo nautic expedition, and more conspicuously with the hunting of the Calydonian boar. Ile -was the son of Oeneus, king of /Etolia, and AltliTa, daughter of Thestius. Upon the seventh day after his birth the three Fates came to the palace of Oeneus, and pointing to a brand burning on the hearth, said that the child should not die till that brand should be spent. Anima thereupon put water on the brand, and laid it awaY in a safe place. As Meleager grew to manhood he made a great name in war and in the chase. He went with the other heroes in quest of the golden fleece; and when Artemis, in her -wrath, sent a monstrous wild boar to harry Calydon, Meleager was at the head of the hunters. Of this Calydonian hunt two stories are told. One says that Artemis had sent a wild boar into Calydon because Oeneus had not done sacrifice to her at the feast of harvest-home, and that Meleager, with many huntsmen and dogs, g,ave chase to the boar, which was soon slain. The Guretes and AtoHans wrangled over the boar's hide and head; and war breaking out between them, the Curetes had ever the worst, till Melea ger, angered at Althwa, his mother, left the field and shut himself up in his house with Cleopatra, his wife; nor would he be moved by the prayers of hi ; father and mother to go out against the Curetes till they had sealed the towers of Calydon; when his wife succeeded in persuading him to fight against the enemy, whom he repelled. The other
and more modern legend represents all the Greek heroes as taking part in the hunt at the invitation of Meleager. Among them were Castor and Pollux, Theseus, Peleus, Jason. and Pirithous. Atalanta, daughter of Jasus, had come from Arcadia to join tho hunt,but some of the heroes objected to a woman, taking part in it. Their objections were overcome by Meleager, who was in love with her. The hunt began at once; Ancaeus and Cepheus were killed by the boar; Peleus killed Eurytion by accident. Then Atalanta gave the boar the first wound, Amphiaraus pierced his eye with an arrow, and the monster was finally killed by Meleager, who gave the head and hide to Atalanta. Melea ger's uncles, the sons of Thestius, took the hide away from Atalanta, and were killed by Meleager. Althwa, enraged by the death of her brothers, burned the brand upon which her son's life depended, and Meleager wasted away and died. Althwa took her own life, Cleopatra died of grief, and Meleager's sisters, with the exception of two, were changed into birds called Meleagrides. The later legend is told in Swinburne's Ata lanta in Calydon.