Calydonian Boar

Calydonian Boar, in Greek mythology. (Eneus, king of Calydon, had made to the deities a solemn offering of thanks, but had forgotten Diana, who therefore sent an animal in the form of a boar, with bristles like arrows, and with teeth like the tusks of an elephant. It vomited fire, destroyed the vineyards and the woods, laid waste the cornfields, killed the cattle, and compelled the inhabitants .to seek refuge in the city Calydon. Thereupon the valiant Meleager assembled the heroic young men of Greece to a united hunt for this monster boar. Echion, Jason, and Mopsus threw their spears in vain at the monster. Eupalamus and Pelagon were killed by him, also Enaesimus, and the father of Achilles only escaped death by swinging himself on a tree; but the boar began to gnaw at the tree and try to pull it up by its roots, when Castor and Pollux came near, by whose spears -the boar was driven into the thicket of the woods. Then Atalanta shot a .feathered arrow at the beast, and struck it near the ear. Meleager praised her shot, saying she deserved the prize more than the men. Anceeus, boasting, wished to show what a man could do in comparison with, a woman, and said, "Even should Diana protect the boar, still he would succumb under the axe." Then he raised his battle-axe, but, even before it fell, the monster's sides were split open. The companions came together and dipped their weapons in the monster's blood. But Meleager took the head and hide of the animal and presented both to Atalanta.