Editing Meleager (section)

=== Calydonian boar hunt ===
[[File:Wall painting - Meleagros and Atalanta - Pompeii (VI 9 3) - Napoli MAN 8980.jpg|thumb|Meleager (sitting on a rock, with 2 spears) and Atalanta (standing) reposing after the Calydonian boar-hunt. Antique fresco from [[Pompeii]].]]
When Meleager was born, the [[Moirai]]&nbsp;(the Fates) predicted he would only live until a piece of wood, then burning in the family hearth, was consumed by fire. Overhearing them, Althaea immediately doused and hid it.<ref>Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#171 171]; Apollodorus, 1.8.2</ref>

Oeneus sent Meleager to gather up heroes from all over Greece<ref>Apollodorus, 1.8.2</ref> to [[Calydonian boar hunt|hunt the Calydonian boar]] that had been terrorizing the area and rooting up the vines, as Oeneus had omitted [[Artemis]] at a festival in which he honored the other gods. In addition to the heroes he required, he chose [[Atalanta]], a fierce huntress, whom he loved.<ref>[[Euripides]], Frg. 520, noted by [[Karl Kerenyi]], ''The Heroes of the Greeks'', 1959:119 note 673.</ref> According to one account of the hunt, when [[Hylaeus and Rhaecus]], two [[centaur]]s, tried to rape Atalanta, Meleager killed them. Then Atalanta wounded the boar and Meleager killed it. He awarded her the hide since she had drawn the first drop of blood.

Meleager's uncles [[Toxeus]], the "archer",<ref>There were two further brothers, Thyreus, the "porter", and Klymenos, the "famous"—though Meleager is by far the most renowned of the four—and two sisters, Gorge and Deianira (Kerenyi 1959:199 and Genealogical table G, p. 375).</ref>  and [[Plexippus]] grew enraged that the prize was given to a woman. Meleager killed them in the following argument.<ref>Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#244 244]</ref> He also killed [[Iphicles]] and [[Eurypylus]] for insulting Atalanta. When Althaea found out that Meleager had killed her brothers, she placed the piece of wood that she had stolen from the Fates (the one that the Fates predicted, once engulfed with fire, would kill Meleager) upon the fire, thus fulfilling the prophecy and killing Meleager, her own son.<ref>Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#239 239] & [https://topostext.org/work/206#249 249]</ref> [[Meleagrids|Meleager's sisters]] who mourned his death excessively were turned into [[helmeted guineafowl|guineafowl]] (''meleagrides'').<ref>Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#174 174]</ref>