Meleager
Family: Greek · Role: hunter · First appears: Book 1 · Chapter 42
In Book 1, Ischepolis was sent to assist Meleager against the Calydonian boar in Ætolia, but was killed.
By Book 4, Meleager was married to Cleopatra and was named as the father of Polydora, daughter of Œneus. In Book 10, accounts of his death differed: Althæa’s curse was said to have caused it, while another account says Apollo killed him while assisting the Curetes against the Ætolians. A later account describes Althæa burning the firebrand on which Meleager’s life depended.
Relationship record
Life events
- Ischepolis was killed while assisting Meleager against the Calydonian boar.(Book 1 · Chapter 42 · 📍 Ætolia)
- With: Ischepolis
- “Ischepolis, whom his father sent to assist Meleager in Ætolia against the Calydonian boar. And when he was killed”
- Althæa’s curse was said to cause Meleager’s death.(Book 10 · Chapter 31)
- With: Althæa
- “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.”
- Apollo killed Meleager while assisting the Curetes against the Ætolians.(Book 10 · Chapter 31)
- With: Apollo
- “Apollo assisted the Curetes against the Ætolians, and killed Meleager.”
- Althæa burned the firebrand on which Meleager’s life depended, causing his death.(Book 10 · Chapter 31)
- With: Althæa
- “how Meleager was fated not to die till it was consumed by fire, and how Althæa set it on fire in a rage”
Book 1 · Chapter 42
- with Ischepolis (Ischepolis assisted Meleager.) “Alcathous had also an elder son called Ischepolis, whom his father sent to assist Meleager in Ætolia against the Calydonian boar.”
Book 4 · Chapter 2
- married with Cleopatra (daughter of Idas) “a daughter Cleopatra, who married Meleager”
- child: Polydora “the wife of Protesilaus, (who when the Greeks got to the Troad was the first who ventured to land), was by name Polydora, and he also says that she was the daughter of Meleager the son of Œneus”
- parent: Œneus “Polydora, and he also says that she was the daughter of Meleager the son of Œneus”
Book 8 · Chapter 4
- with Ancæus (son of Lycurgus) (interaction) “and afterwards, hunting with Meleager the wild boar in Calydon, was killed by it.”
Book 10 · Chapter 31
- with Apollo (Apollo killed Meleager.) “Apollo assisted the Curetes against the Ætolians, and killed Meleager.”
- with Althæa (Althæa cursed Meleager.) “A Fury heard Althæa cursing him, and that this was the cause of his death.”
- parent: Althæa (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.