As Told By Me

Meleager and Atalanta

The story of Meleager and Atalanta is a relatively sad one. First off, when Meleager was born, the Fates came to his mother and told her that Meleager's life would rely on a half-burnt stick (for the Heroes of Olympus fans out there, I am assuming that Rick Riordan based Frank's character off of Meleager and Mrs. Zhang's character off of Queen Althea, Meleager's mother). Queen Althea wanted to defy the Fates, like literally every mortal in any myth. So, in doing this, Queen Althea took up the burning stick from the fire, put out the stick, and put the stick in a chest that only she knew about. Now, in case you didn't know, Meleager was one out of many great heroes that went with Jason on the Argo. After Meleager went home, he heard of a giant boar ravaging the area. This boar was called the Calydon Boar. Meleager didn't like this so he gathered up his Argonaut (the people who went on the expedition for the Golden Fleece) buddies and went on an epic boar hunt. This group consisted of Heracles, Theseus, Echion, Nestor, Telemon, Peleus, Ancaeus, Eurytion, Meleager's two uncles Phexippus and Toxeus, and last but to Meleager, not least, the maiden Atalanta (who Meleager was madly in love with). Atalanta was a follower of Artemis as well as the only female Argonaut. Now, the Greeks were sexist and didn't approve of women fighting along with men, or at all for that matter. Phexippus and Toxeus were the least approving of Atalanta going on this boar hunt. Once the boar was found, the first thing that Atalanta does is shoot at the boar with an arrow. Although it was a good shot, it only seemed to make the boar angry. After a few sexist remarks from Ancaeus, he finally took a swing at the boar with his battle axe. You guessed it folks! The boar immediately kills Ancaeus. Peleus took a shot at the boar and accidentally hits Eurytion. Finally, Meleager kills the boar. He skins the overgrown swine and awards Atalanta with the head and the hide. Phexippus and Toxeus are outraged! Phexippus announces that he doesn't think that the woman should get the hide, seeing as he was "the noblest hero in the group." Toxeus then storms up to Atalanta and takes the spoils from her. This sets Meleager off and he ends up killing both Phexippus and Toxeus. After getting back to Calydon, Queen Althea is furious at Meleager for killing her brothers. Meleager and the remaining Argonauts have a feast in honor of Atalanta for being the first one to maim the boar. Meanwhile, Queen Althea goes and unlocks the chest in which she hid the half burned stick in all those years ago. She lights the stick on fire and soon the stick is a pile of ashes. Meleager falls over at the feast and dies. After Queen Althea processes what she had done to her own son, she gets some rope and she hanged herself in a tree. Atalanta lives on and although she swore never to marry, a man named Hippomens comes into the picture. They get married and Artemis turns them both into lions. Although the story says that Artemis thought that they should be remembered as noble and decided to turn them into lions, I believe that Artemis would have just been mad because Atalanta betrayed her trust.