Myth Library · Heroic
The Calydonian Boar Hunt
1 source witness · 1 source-scoped variant · reviewed 2026-08-30
When Oeneus omits Artemis from the first-fruit offerings, she sends a devastating boar; the hunt ends with Atalanta winning the first wound, Meleager killing the beast, and a quarrel over the hide turning victory into family bloodshed.
Canonical narrative
At Calydon, Oeneus offers the first fruits of the year to the gods and forgets Artemis alone. Pseudo-Apollodorus makes that omission the beginning of a public disaster. The goddess sends a boar of extraordinary strength. It prevents sowing, destroys cattle, and kills the people who meet it. A neglected offering becomes hunger, danger, and death across the countryside.
Oeneus summons renowned hunters and promises the hide to whoever kills the beast. Atalanta joins them despite the contempt of men who do not want to hunt beside a woman. When the boar charges, it kills Hyleus and Ancaeus. Atalanta lands the first arrow in its back, Amphiaraus strikes its eye, and Meleager delivers the killing blow in its flank. He gives the hide to Atalanta.
The prize carries the violence home. The sons of Thestius seize the hide, arguing that it belongs to them if Meleager will not keep it. Meleager kills them and restores the prize to Atalanta. Pseudo-Apollodorus then preserves two endings for him. In one, the Moirai had come when Meleager was seven days old and declared that he would die when a burning hearth brand was consumed. Althaea snatched the wood from the fire, hid it in a chest, and now returns it to the flames. In another, war breaks out between Curetes and Calydonians, and Meleager falls after returning to defend his city. Artemis does not appear in the quarrel, but the boar she sent opens the chain of actions that makes a heroic hunt collapse into kin-killing and grief. After Meleager dies, Althaea and Cleopatra hang themselves, carrying the destruction beyond the hunters and into the household.
Episodes in this myth
Episode 1
Oeneus forgets Artemis
Oeneus omits Artemis from the first-fruit offerings, and she sends a boar that makes farming impossible and kills animals and people.
Episode 2
Atalanta wounds and Meleager kills
Atalanta strikes first, Meleager kills the boar, and he gives her the hide over the objections of her fellow hunters.
Episode 3
The prize becomes family bloodshed
The sons of Thestius seize the hide, Meleager kills them, and his own death follows through either the life-brand or a war for Calydon.
Participants and roles
Artemis
goddess who sends the boar after Oeneus omits her offering
Her action begins the devastation and hunt, but the later quarrel belongs to the human participants.Oeneus
king whose forgotten offering brings Artemis’ anger upon Calydon
He summons the hunters and promises the boar’s hide as the prize.Calydonian boar
divinely sent animal that ravages the land and kills hunters
The animal is the instrument of devastation and a dangerous quarry, not a generic emblem for Artemis.Meleager
hunter who kills the boar, awards the hide to Atalanta, and kills his maternal uncles
His death follows in two incompatible forms preserved by the same witness.Atalanta
hunter who wounds the boar first and receives its hide from Meleager
Her skill and the men’s objection to her prize drive the conflict after the hunt.Althaea
mother who destroys Meleager in the life-brand version after he kills her brothers
The alternative war account gives Meleager a different death and must stay separate.Sons of Thestius
maternal uncles who seize the hide from Atalanta and are killed by Meleager
Their challenge turns the hunting prize into a family conflict.Moirai
pronounce the infant Meleager’s death condition over the burning hearth brand
Their pronouncement creates the life-brand condition; Althaea preserves and later completes it.Source-scoped variants
Pseudo-Apollodorus’ hunt and Meleager endings
Artemis sends the boar, Atalanta makes the first wound, Meleager kills it and awards her the hide, and the quarrel leads to two incompatible endings for Meleager.
What differs: One ending binds Meleager’s life to a brand burned by Althaea; the other makes him die in war after returning to defend Calydon.
Greek Roman Imperial · CalydonSource witnesses
EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed
Library
Pseudo-Apollodorus; edited and translated by James G. Frazer · 1921
Entry Library · Section 1.8.2-3
Controls the omitted offering, destructive boar, named hunt, contested hide, kin-killing, and two endings for Meleager.
Open reviewed source