The Myth of Meleager
The Myth of Meleager
The Meleager myth was extremely popular in funerary art. The themes of the vicissitudes of fortune and the inevitability of fate and the transience of life are all themes which make the Meleager myth appropriate for funerary art. Among the schemes and arrangements of scenes representing the Meleager myth on sarcophagi, the motif of the boar hunting was the most popular. This appreciation of the myth of the heroic hunter who slew the monstrous Calydonian boar accounts “the appeal that hunting figures had for the Romans, through their heroizing connotations”.
The boar comes out from the right corner. Two naked figures with their weapons attack from the rear the en-circled and trapped boar. The action culminates with the hero Meleager plunging his long spear into the boar. According to the latest versions of the Meleager myth, Atalanta is beside the hunter-hero. She is represented as the goddess Artemis with arc and quiver, and her hairstyle is typical of the Antoninian time. Behind Meleager two hunters and a horse head close the main scene.
The Artemis’ figure is carved in the left part of the sarcophagus. According to the myth, Oeneus, father of Meleager and lord of Calydon, once neglected to offer up a sacrifice to Artemis, whereupon the angry goddess sent the monstrous boar into the fields of Calydon, which were ravaged by the beast, while no one had the courage to hunt it.
The king Oeneus is represented near Artemis; he is armed with an axe, and is moving fast toward Meleager.
On the short right side of the rectangular sarcophagus, Meleager is resting, sited on a rock with his left harm laid on his long spear; he is looking to his left toward a tree where the dead body of the boar is hung.
Roman Sarcophagus
2nd quarter of the 3rd Cent. AD
Pisa, Antiquarium, Monumental Cemetery
The Myth of Meleager
The Myth of Meleager
The Meleager myth was extremely popular in funerary art. The themes of the vicissitudes of fortune and the inevitability of fate and the transience of life are all themes which make the Meleager myth appropriate for funerary art. Among the schemes and arrangements of scenes representing the Meleager myth on sarcophagi, the motif of the boar hunting was the most popular. This appreciation of the myth of the heroic hunter who slew the monstrous Calydonian boar accounts “the appeal that hunting figures had for the Romans, through their heroizing connotations”.
The boar comes out from the right corner. Two naked figures with their weapons attack from the rear the en-circled and trapped boar. The action culminates with the hero Meleager plunging his long spear into the boar. According to the latest versions of the Meleager myth, Atalanta is beside the hunter-hero. She is represented as the goddess Artemis with arc and quiver, and her hairstyle is typical of the Antoninian time. Behind Meleager two hunters and a horse head close the main scene.
The Artemis’ figure is carved in the left part of the sarcophagus. According to the myth, Oeneus, father of Meleager and lord of Calydon, once neglected to offer up a sacrifice to Artemis, whereupon the angry goddess sent the monstrous boar into the fields of Calydon, which were ravaged by the beast, while no one had the courage to hunt it.
The king Oeneus is represented near Artemis; he is armed with an axe, and is moving fast toward Meleager.
On the short right side of the rectangular sarcophagus, Meleager is resting, sited on a rock with his left harm laid on his long spear; he is looking to his left toward a tree where the dead body of the boar is hung.
Roman Sarcophagus
2nd quarter of the 3rd Cent. AD
Pisa, Antiquarium, Monumental Cemetery