Editing Althaea (mythology)

{{Short description|Character in Greek mythology}}
'''Althaea''' or '''Althea''' ({{IPAc-en|æ|l|ˈ|θ|iː|ə}}; [[Ancient Greek]]: Ἀλθαία ''Althaía'' "healer" from ἀλθαίνω ''althaino'', "to cure", also "a kind of [[Malvaceae|mallow]]")<ref>{{cite book|author1=Antoninus Liberalis|author-link=Antoninus Liberalis|author2-first=Francis|author2-last=Celoria|title=The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A translation with a commentary|chapter=Notes and Commentary: 2. The Meleagrides; [[s.v.]] Althaea|page=111|publisher=Rootledge|year=1992|isbn=0415068967|place=London and New York}}</ref><ref name=Beekes>{{cite book|title=Etymological Dictionary of Greek|first=Robert|last=Beekes|author-link=Robert S. P. Beekes|others=With the assistance of Lucien van Beek. In two volumes.|place=Leiden, Boston|year=2010|orig-year=2009|chapter=s.v. {{lang|grc|ἀλθαίνω -ομαι}}|pages=66–67|isbn=9789004174184}}</ref> was the queen of Calydon in [[Greek mythology]].

[[File:Althaea baur.jpg|thumb| Sketch illustration of Althea]]

== Family ==
Althaea was the daughter of King [[Thestius]]<ref name=":0">[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.8.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=0:chapter=0&highlight=Thestius 1.8.1]; [[Antoninus Liberalis]], [https://topostext.org/work/216#2 2] as cited in [[Nicander|Nicander's]] ''Metamorphoses''</ref> and [[Eurythemis]], and was sister to [[Leda (mythology)|Leda]], [[Hypermnestra]], [[Iphiclus (mythology)|Iphiclus]], [[Evippus|Euippus]].<ref name="DGRBM">{{cite encyclopedia | last = Schmitz | first = Leonhard | author-link = Leonhard Schmitz | title = Althaea | editor = William Smith | editor-link = William Smith (lexicographer) | encyclopedia = [[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]] | volume = 1 | pages = 134 | publisher = [[Little, Brown and Company]] | location = Boston | year = 1867 | url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0143.html | url-status = usurped | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080527153044/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0143.html | archive-date = 2008-05-27 }}</ref> She was also the wife of [[Oeneus]], king of Calydon, and mother of sons, [[Meleager]], [[Toxeus]], [[Thyreus (mythology)|Thyreus]] ([[Pheres]] or [[Phereus]]), [[Clymenus]], [[Agelaus]] ([[Ageleus]]), [[Periphas]] and daughters, [[Deianeira]], [[Gorge (mythology)|Gorge]], [[Melanippe]] and [[Eurymede]] (the latter two were included in the [[Meleagrids]]).<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Catalogue of Women|Ehoiai]]'' fr. 25.14–17; Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.7.10&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Althaea 1.7.10] & [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.8.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Althaea 1.8.1]; Antoninus Liberalis, [https://topostext.org/work/216#2 2] as cited in [[Nicander|Nicander's]] ''Metamorphoses''</ref>  According to some writers, Meleager was the result of a liaison with the Greek god [[Ares]], and Deianeira the progeny of Althaea and the god [[Dionysus]].<ref>compare [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#129 129], [https://topostext.org/work/206#171 171] & [https://topostext.org/work/206#174 174]</ref> In some accounts, [[Ancaeus (son of Poseidon)|Ancaeus]] was called her son by the god [[Poseidon]].<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#14.3 14.3]</ref>

== Mythology ==
[[File:Side Relief from Urban Sarcophagus 02 (49346506631).jpg|thumb|Althaea kills Meleager on a Roman sarcophagus, 2nd century.]]

Althaea is especially remembered in ancient story about the fate of her son Meleager; they became the cause of each other's deaths. When Meleager was born, the [[Moirai]] (the Fates) predicted he would only live until a brand, burning in the family hearth, was consumed by fire.

:Oeneus and Mars both slept one night with Althaea, daughter of Thestius. When Meleager was born from them, suddenly in the palace the Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, appeared. They thus sang his fate: Clotho said that he would be noble, Lachesis that he would be brave, but Atropos looking at a brand burning on the hearth and said, "He will live only as long as this brand remains unconsumed." When Althaea, the mother, heard this, she leaped from the bed, put out the fatal brand, and buried it in the midst of the palace, so that it shouldn't be destroyed by fire.<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#171 171]</ref>

In [[Aeschylus]]' ''[[Libation Bearers]]'' Althaea is mentioned by the Chorus of captive slaves, serving women of [[Clytemnestra]], in a recollection of 'hatreds that stopped at nothing'.
:Let anyone whose mind is steady remember this, once he has learned the story of [[Thestius]]' daughter, ruthless Althaea, who killed her own son. She contrived a plot to burn the brand that fate assigned to span his life; it had been kept since the day he came out crying from his mother's loins. Deliberately, deceitfully, she set on fire what was to have kept pace with him from birth to death. It glowed bright red before the fire blackened it.<ref>[[Aeschylus]], ''[[Libation Bearers]]'' 596–625</ref>

[[Meleager]] grew to be a well-respected prince. One spring Oeneus sacrificed the first fruits of the seasons to all the gods, omitting [[Artemis]] by mistake. Enraged by the slight, Artemis sent a [[Calydonian Boar|boar]] of unnatural size and strength to ruin the land of Calydon. Meleager was one of the warriors who hunted the boar, along with the famous huntress [[Atalanta]] and Althaea's brothers. Meleager dealt the killing strike to the boar, but gave the skin to Atalanta both because he had fallen in love with her and because she had landed the first and many subsequent blows onto the animal. When Althaea's brothers, "thinking scorn that a woman should get the prize in the face of men, took the skin from her, alleging that it belonged to them by right of birth if Meleager did not choose to take it,"<ref>Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.8.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.00:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Althaea 1.8.2]</ref> Meleager flew into a rage and killed both of his uncles.

When Althaea learned what had happened, she retrieved the brand from where she had concealed it and placed the brand back upon the fire, killing him. Some say that she and Meleager's wife [[Cleopatra Alcyone|Cleopatra]] later hanged themselves, others that she killed herself with a dagger.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' 9.556; Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.8.3&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Althaea 1.8.3]; [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' 8.445</ref>

==Family tree==
{{Calydonian dynasty}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==

* [[Aeschylus]], translated in two volumes. 2. ''Libation Bearers'' by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1926. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0008 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0007 Greek text available from the same website].
* [[Antoninus Liberalis]], ''The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis'' translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). [https://topostext.org/work/216 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
* [[Gaius Julius Hyginus]], ''Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. [https://topostext.org/work/206 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
* [[Hesiod]], ''Catalogue of Women'' from ''Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica'' translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914. [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodCatalogues.html Online version at theio.com]
* [[Homer]], [[Iliad|''The Iliad'']] with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
* Homer, ''Homeri Opera'' in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0133 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Ovid|Publius Ovidius Naso]], ''Metamorphoses'' translated by Brookes More (1859–1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
* Publius Ovidius Naso, ''Metamorphoses.'' Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0029 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Thomas Bulfinch]]. ''Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable or Stories of Gods and Heroes.'' 1855 (Chapter XVIII).

[[Category:Princesses in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Queens in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Family of Calyce (mythology)]]
[[Category:Women of Ares]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses characters]]
[[Category:Mythological Aetolians]]
[[Category:Suicides in Greek mythology]]