Monday, June 21, 2010

Myths and Legends: Meleager

Meleager. To find out more about the Greek hero Meleager, see this Wikipedia article: link; for information about the image: image source.

Meleager is most famous for his role in the hunt of the Calydonian Boar, and you can see him here accompanied by his hunting dogs. In addition to recruiting the famous heroes of his age, he also recruited his beloved Atalanta to join in the hunt; she actually drew the first blood, wounding the boar, and Meleager then killed it. Because Atalanta had drawn the first blood, Meleager awarded the boar to her as a trophy, but this outraged the other members of the hunting party. In the ensuing quarrel, Meleager killed his own brother and his uncle; his mother, in a rage, then brought about Meleager's own death by burning up the firebrand that was his life token.

You can also find more myths and legends for the week of June 17-23 here. For more information and links to the actual javascript code, see the Myths & Legends Widget Reference Page.