Meleager

Meleager , hero in Greek mythology. He was the son of Oeneus, king of Calydon, and Althaea. When Meleager was born, a prophecy said that he would die when a certain log in the fire was burned. His mother snatched the log from the fire and hid it. Meleager grew to be a famous warrior. When Oeneus failed to sacrifice to Artemis, the goddess sent a huge wild boar to ravage his land. To kill the boar Greece's bravest heroes were summoned. Those who came included Castor and Pollux, Theseus, Jason, Nestor, and Atalanta. Meleager led the hunt, known as the Calydonian hunt, and killed the boar. He gave its pelt to Atalanta, with whom he had fallen in love. When his mother's brothers tried to take the pelt, Meleager killed them. In revenge, his mother angrily burned the hidden log, and Meleager died as prophesied. In Homer, the Atalanta account is absent, and Meleager is killed in a battle for possession of the pelt.

Meleager in Greek mythology, a hero at whose birth the Fates declared that he would die when a brand then on the fire was consumed. His mother Althaea seized the brand and kept it, but threw it back into the fire when he quarrelled with and killed her brothers in a hunting expedition, whereupon he died.

He is said to have hunted down and killed the Calydonian boar, in the company of Atalanta, with whom he was in love, and who first wounded the boar. He gave the spoils of the chase to her, and it was the attempt of his uncles to deprive her of them that brought about their deaths.