Oeneus

Oeneus was a king of Calydon in Aetolia, son of Porthaon, husband of Althaea and father of Meleager, Deianeira and Tydeus. He is the king who forgot to honour Artemis in his harvest offerings, so that she sent the Calydonian Boar against his land, and the grandfather of Diomedes, who restored him to his throne in old age.

Family and Early Life

Oeneus was one of the sons of Porthaon and Euryte, the daughter of Hippodamas; his brothers were Agrius, Alcathous, Melas and Leucopeus, and his sister was Sterope (Apollodorus, Library 1.7.10). Homer names three sons of Portheus (Porthaon) who lived in Pleuron and Calydon: Agrius, Melas and Oeneus, who was the best of them in valour (Homer, Iliad 14.115–118). In Apollodorus’ account, Oeneus ruled Calydon and was the first man to receive a vine plant from Dionysus (Library 1.8.1).

Oeneus’ Wife and Children

Oeneus married Althaea, the daughter of Thestius. According to Apollodorus their children were Toxeus, whom Oeneus killed with his own hand because he leaped over the ditch, Thyreus, Clymenus, Gorge, who married Andraemon, and Deianeira, who was said to have been begotten on Althaea by Dionysus (Library 1.8.1). Althaea also had a son Meleager by Oeneus, although some said that Ares was his father (Library 1.8.2). Deianeira drove a chariot and practised the art of war, and Heracles wrestled the river Achelous for her hand and won her (Library 1.8.1, 2.7.5).

After Althaea died, Oeneus married Periboea, daughter of Hipponous, and she bore him Tydeus (Library 1.8.4–5). Another account in Apollodorus, which he attributes to Pisander, makes Gorge the mother of Tydeus (Library 1.8.5). Tydeus fled from Calydon after a killing, came to Adrastus at Argos, and married Adrastus’ daughter Deipyle, who bore Diomedes (Library 1.8.5). In Homer, Athena, taunting Diomedes, calls his father Tydeus “the son of Oeneus” (Homer, Iliad 5.812–813), and Diomedes himself speaks of Oeneus as the old friend of Bellerophon (Iliad 6.215–220).

The Calydonian Boar

In Homer, Oeneus sacrificed the first fruits of the harvest to all the gods but forgot, or did not think of, Artemis alone; the goddess sent a wild boar with white tusks that laid waste his orchards (Homer, Iliad 9.533–542). In Apollodorus’ version, Oeneus then called together the noblest men of Greece and promised the skin of the boar to whoever killed it (Library 1.8.2). The hunters included Meleager, Atalanta, Castor and Pollux, Theseus, Jason, Peleus, Telamon and others, and Oeneus entertained them for nine days before the hunt (Library 1.8.2).

The boar killed Hyleus and Ancaeus. Atalanta was the first to hit it, shooting it in the back with an arrow, then Amphiaraus hit it in the eye, and Meleager killed it with a stab in the flank (Library 1.8.2). In Homer too it is Meleager, son of Oeneus, who kills the boar after gathering huntsmen and hounds from many cities (Iliad 9.543–546). Meleager gave the skin to Atalanta, and the brothers of Althaea, the sons of Thestius, took it from her, saying it belonged to them by birth if Meleager did not want it (Library 1.8.2).

The Death of Meleager

In Apollodorus, Meleager killed the sons of Thestius in a rage and gave the skin to Atalanta. Althaea, grieving for her brothers, kindled the brand that the Fates had said would decide Meleager’s life, and he died at once. When he was seven days old, the Fates had declared that he would die when the brand then burning on the hearth was burnt out; Althaea snatched it from the fire and hid it in a chest (Library 1.8.2–3). Afterwards Althaea and Meleager’s wife Cleopatra hanged themselves (Library 1.8.3).

Apollodorus also gives the Homeric version. After Meleager killed some of the Thestiads, the Curetes made war on the Calydonians over the skin, and Althaea cursed him; he stayed at home in anger until the enemy was at the walls (Library 1.8.3). In Homer, Oeneus himself begged his son from the threshold of his chamber to come out, shaking the doors, but Meleager refused until his wife persuaded him (Iliad 9.581–599). Homer does not mention the brand.

Oeneus and Heracles

Heracles came to Calydon and wooed Deianeira, daughter of Oeneus; after he wrestled Achelous for her and broke off one of his horns, he married her (Apollodorus, Library 2.7.5). Oeneus also entertained Bellerophon for twenty days and gave him a purple belt, receiving a golden double cup in return, as Diomedes tells Glaucus when they meet in battle at Troy (Homer, Iliad 6.215–220).

Overthrow, Restoration and Death

Oeneus grew old, and the sons of Agrius (Thersites, Onchestus, Prothous, Celeutor, Lycopeus and Melanippus) took the kingdom from him, gave it to their father, and imprisoned and tormented Oeneus (Apollodorus, Library 1.8.6). Diomedes came secretly from Argos with Alcmaeon and killed all the sons of Agrius except Onchestus and Thersites, who had fled to the Peloponnese. As Oeneus was old, Diomedes gave the kingdom to Andraemon, the husband of Oeneus’ daughter Gorge, and took Oeneus with him to the Peloponnese. The sons of Agrius who had escaped waylaid the old man at the hearth of Telephus in Arcadia and killed him; Diomedes carried the body to Argos and buried it at the place later called Oenoe (Library 1.8.6). Pausanias also says that Oenoe in the Argolid is named after Oeneus, who was driven from his throne by the sons of Agrius and was buried there by Diomedes after his death (Pausanias 2.25.2).

Homer, who knows Meleager’s fate, says that at the time of the Trojan War the sons of Oeneus were no more, he himself was dead, and Thoas son of Andraemon led the Aetolians (Homer, Iliad 2.638–642).

Oeneus Sources

Homer, Iliad 2.638–642, 5.813, 6.215–220, 9.529–546, 9.581–599, 14.115–118. Apollodorus, Library 1.7.10, 1.8.1–6, 2.7.5. Pausanias 2.25.2.

See Also: Althaea, Meleager, Deianeira, Artemis, Calydonian Boar, Atalanta, Diomedes, Tydeus