Althæa
First appears: Book 8 · Chapter 45
In Book 8, Chapter 45, Althæa is named among “the brothers of Althæa,” including Prothous and Cometes. By Book 10, Chapter 31, her curse against Meleager was said to have caused his death. Another tradition held that his life depended on a firebrand, which Althæa burned in a rage, causing him to die.
Relationship record
Life events
- Althæa’s curse was said to cause Meleager’s death.(Book 10 · Chapter 31)
- With: Meleager
- “As to the death of Meleager, Homer informs us that a Fury heard Althæa cursing him, and that this was the cause of his death.”
- Althæa burned the firebrand on which Meleager’s life depended, causing his death.(Book 10 · Chapter 31)
- With: Meleager
- “how Meleager was fated not to die till it was consumed by fire, and how Althæa set it on fire in a rage”
Book 8 · Chapter 45
Book 10 · Chapter 31
- with Meleager (Althæa cursed Meleager.) “A Fury heard Althæa cursing him, and that this was the cause of his death.”
- child: Meleager (The quoted passage identifies Althæa as Meleager's mother.) “As to the death of Meleager, Homer informs us that a Fury heard Althæa cursing him, and that this was the cause of his death. But the poems called the Great Eœæ and the Minyad agree in stating that Apollo assisted the Curetes against the Ætolians, and killed Meleager. As to the famous tradition about the firebrand; how it was given to Althæa by the Fates, and how Meleager was fated not to die till it was consumed by fire, and how Althæa set it on fire in a rage, all this was first described by Phrynichus, the son of Polyphradmon, in his play called Pleuroniæ: ‘He escaped not dread fate, but was consumed by the swift flame, as soon as the ill-contrived firebrand was set on fire by his stern mother.’”
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Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.