Antiquities Exhibits

Meleager was a Calydonian prince as the son of Althaea and the vintner, King Oeneus, although in some versions of the myth, the god Ares. Like a number of mythological heroes, Meleager was fated to die young by the Moirai (the Fates) who predicted he would only live until a piece of wood, burning in the family hearth, was consumed by fire. Overhearing them, his mother, Althaea, immediately doused the hearth and hid wood. When Meleager grew to manhood, his father, King Oeneus, ordered Meleager to gather up heroes from all over Greece to hunt the Calydonian Boar that had been terrorizing the area and rooting up the vinyards needed for the production of his father's wines. The boar was actually sent as a punishment by Artemis after King Oenus neglected to honor Artemis at a festival he held to honor other gods. In addition to the heroes his father named, Meleager also asked Atalanta, a fierce hunter who had been abandoned as an infant and raised by a bear, to participate as well. ...

Ancient Worlds. Greeks, Etruscans and Romans Ongoing at the Altes Museum in Berlin, Germany. The Greek hero Meleager Roman copy of Greek original in the Altes Museum in Berlin, Germany.  Image by Richard Mortel courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. The new exhibition on the main floor of the Altes Museum starts with the 'Age of Heroes', from 1000 to 700 BCE. Statues of warriors and helmets stand alongside images of griffins and lions that are distinctly Eastern in character. Right from the outset, the visitor's gaze is drawn towards the next rooms containing archaic temples and tomb monuments dating from the 6th century BCE. The section 'Life and Death in Athens', meanwhile, sheds light on all facets of everyday life in the capital of classical antiquity. Related link: https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/altes-museum/about-the-collections/collections.html