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{{short description|Mythological boar}}
{{Short description|Mythological boar}}
{{Infobox mythical creature
{{Infobox mythical creature
|image = Herakles Eurystheus boar Louvre F202.jpg
|image = Herakles Eurystheus boar Louvre F202.jpg
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|Habitat = [[Mount Erymanthos]]
|Habitat = [[Mount Erymanthos]]
}}
}}

In [[Greek mythology]], the '''Erymanthian boar''' ([[Ancient Greek|Greek]]: ὁ Ἐρυμάνθιος κάπρος; [[Latin]]: ''aper Erymanthius'') was a mythical creature that took the form of a "shaggy and wild"<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Seneca's Tragedies|publisher=William Heinemann; G. R Putnam's Sons.|year=1917|volume=1|location=London; New York|pages=21|translator-last=Miller|translator-first=Frank Justus|chapter=Hercules Furens 228 ff.|id=ark:/13960/t71v5s15x}}</ref> "tameless"<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Quintus Smyrnaeus The Fall Of Troy|publisher=William Heinemann Ltd; Harvard University Press|year=1984|location=London; Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=271|translator-last=Way|translator-first=A. S.|chapter=The Fall of Troy, Book VI. 220 ff.|id=ark:/13960/t2m61f62d|orig-year=1913}}</ref> "boar"<ref name=":7" /> "of vast weight"<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Ovid Heroides And Amores|publisher=William Heinemann; The Macmillan Co.|year=1914|location=London; New York|pages=115|translator-last=Showerman|translator-first=Grant|chapter=The Heroides 9. 87 ff|id=ark:/13960/t76t0t11q}}</ref> "and foaming jaws".<ref name=":1" /> It was a [[Tegea]]ean,<ref name=":2" /> [[Maenalus (town)|Maenalusian]]<ref name=":0" /> or [[Erymanthos (municipality)|Erymanthian]]<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|title=Sophocles The Plays and Fragments|publisher=The University Press|year=1892|volume=5 The Trachiniae|location=Cambridge|pages=159|translator-last=Jebb|translator-first=R. C.|chapter=Trachiniai. 1097|id=ark:/13960/t6tx3f955}}</ref> boar that lived in the "glens of [[Lampeia]]"<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title="The Argonautica" of Apollonius Rhodius|publisher=George Bell And Sons, York Street, Covent Garden.|year=1889|location=London|pages=8|translator-last=Coleridge|translator-first=Edward P.|chapter=The Argonautica. Book 1 67-111|id=ark:/13960/t03x8577n}}</ref> beside the "vast marsh of Erymanthus".<ref name=":3" /> It would sally<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Apollodorus the Library|publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons|year=1921|volume=1|location=New York|pages=191 with the Scholiast|translator-last=Frazer|translator-first=Sir James George|chapter=The Library 2. 5. 3-4|id=ark:/13960/t00012x9f.}}</ref> from the "thick-wooded",<ref name=":0" /> "cypress-bearing"<ref name=":2" /> "heights of Erymanthus"<ref name=":0" /> to "harry the groves of [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcady]]"<ref name=":0" /> and "abuse the land of [[Psophis]]".<ref name=":4" />
In [[Greek mythology]], the '''Erymanthian boar''' ([[Ancient Greek|Greek]]: ὁ Ἐρυμάνθιος κάπρος; [[Latin]]: ''aper Erymanthius'') was a mythical creature that took the form of a "shaggy and wild"<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Seneca's Tragedies|publisher=William Heinemann; G. R Putnam's Sons.|year=1917|volume=1|location=London; New York|pages=21|translator-last=Miller|translator-first=Frank Justus|chapter=Hercules Furens 228 ff.|id=ark:/13960/t71v5s15x}}</ref> "tameless"<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Quintus Smyrnaeus The Fall Of Troy|publisher=William Heinemann Ltd; Harvard University Press|year=1984|location=London; Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=271|translator-last=Way|translator-first=A. S.|chapter=The Fall of Troy, Book VI. 220 ff.|id=ark:/13960/t2m61f62d|orig-year=1913}}</ref> "boar"<ref name=":7" /> "of vast weight"<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Ovid Heroides And Amores|publisher=William Heinemann; The Macmillan Co.|year=1914|location=London; New York|pages=115|translator-last=Showerman|translator-first=Grant|chapter=The Heroides 9. 87 ff|id=ark:/13960/t76t0t11q}}</ref> "and foaming jaws".<ref name=":1" /> It was a [[Tegea]]ean,<ref name=":2" /> [[Maenalus (town)|Maenalusian]]<ref name=":0" /> or [[Erymanthos (municipality)|Erymanthian]]<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|title=Sophocles The Plays and Fragments|publisher=The University Press|year=1892|volume=5 The Trachiniae|location=Cambridge|pages=159|translator-last=Jebb|translator-first=R. C.|chapter=Trachiniai. 1097|id=ark:/13960/t6tx3f955}}</ref> boar that lived in the "glens of [[Lampeia]]"<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title="The Argonautica" of Apollonius Rhodius|publisher=George Bell And Sons, York Street, Covent Garden.|year=1889|location=London|pages=8|translator-last=Coleridge|translator-first=Edward P.|chapter=The Argonautica. Book 1 67-111|id=ark:/13960/t03x8577n}}</ref> beside the "vast marsh of Erymanthus".<ref name=":3" /> It would sally<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Apollodorus the Library|publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons|year=1921|volume=1|location=New York|pages=191 with the Scholiast|translator-last=Frazer|translator-first=Sir James George|chapter=The Library 2. 5. 3-4|id=ark:/13960/t00012x9f.}}</ref> from the "thick-wooded",<ref name=":0" /> "cypress-bearing"<ref name=":2" /> "heights of Erymanthus"<ref name=":0" /> to "harry the groves of [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcady]]"<ref name=":0" /> and "abuse the land of [[Psophis]]".<ref name=":4" />


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"The inhabitants of [[Cumae]], in the land of the [[Osci|Opici]], profess that the boar's tusks which are preserved in the sanctuary of [[Apollo]] at Cumae are the tusks of the Erymanthian boar, but the assertion is without a shred of probability."<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|title=Pausanias's Description of Greece|publisher=Macmillan and Co. Limited; The Macmillan Company|year=1898|location=London; New York|pages=402|translator-last=Frazer|translator-first=J. G.|chapter=Bk. VIII. Arcadia 24. 5-6|id=ark:/13960/t5t72bt15}}</ref>
"The inhabitants of [[Cumae]], in the land of the [[Osci|Opici]], profess that the boar's tusks which are preserved in the sanctuary of [[Apollo]] at Cumae are the tusks of the Erymanthian boar, but the assertion is without a shred of probability."<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|title=Pausanias's Description of Greece|publisher=Macmillan and Co. Limited; The Macmillan Company|year=1898|location=London; New York|pages=402|translator-last=Frazer|translator-first=J. G.|chapter=Bk. VIII. Arcadia 24. 5-6|id=ark:/13960/t5t72bt15}}</ref>


In the primitive highlands of [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]], where old practices lingered, the Erymanthian boar was a giant fear-inspiring creature of the wilds that lived on [[Mount Erymanthos]], a mountain that was apparently once sacred to the [[Mistress of the Animals]], for in classical times it remained the haunt of [[Artemis]] ([[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'', VI.105). A boar was a dangerous animal: "When the goddess turned a wrathful countenance upon a country, as in the story of [[Meleager]], she would send a raging boar, which laid waste the farmers' fields."<ref>Kerenyi (1959), p. 149.</ref>[[Image:Hércules y el jabalí de Erimanto, por Zurbarán.jpg|thumb|right|''Heracles and the Erymanthian Boar'', by [[Francisco de Zurbarán]], 1634 ([[Museo del Prado]])]]
In the primitive highlands of [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]], where old practices lingered, the Erymanthian boar was a giant fear-inspiring creature of the wilds that lived on [[Mount Erymanthos]], a mountain that was apparently once sacred to the [[Mistress of the Animals]], for in classical times it remained the haunt of [[Artemis]] ([[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'', VI.105). A boar was a dangerous animal: "When the goddess turned a wrathful countenance upon a country, as in the story of [[Meleager]], she would send a raging boar, which laid waste the farmers' fields."<ref>Kerenyi (1959), p. 149.</ref>[[File:Hércules y el jabalí de Erimanto, por Zurbarán.jpg|thumb|right|''Heracles and the Erymanthian Boar'', by [[Francisco de Zurbarán]], 1634 ([[Museo del Prado]])]]


== Cultural depictions ==
== Cultural depictions ==
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== References ==
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{Reflist}}


==External links==
==External links==
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* [http://www.theoi.com/Ther/HusErymanthios.html Theoi Project: Erymanthian Boar, Giant boar of Arcadia]
* [http://www.theoi.com/Ther/HusErymanthios.html Theoi Project: Erymanthian Boar, Giant boar of Arcadia]


{{Twelve tasks of Hercules}}
{{Labours of Heracles}}


[[Category:Labours of Hercules]]
[[Category:Labours of Hercules]]

Revision as of 09:49, 17 August 2024

Erymanthian boar
Heracles, Eurystheus and the Erymanthian boar. Side A from an Ancient Greek black-figured amphora, painted by the Antimenes painter, ca. 525 BC, from Etruria. Louvre Museum, Paris.
GroupingLegendary creature
FolkloreGreek mythology
CountryGreece
HabitatMount Erymanthos

In Greek mythology, the Erymanthian boar (Greek: ὁ Ἐρυμάνθιος κάπρος; Latin: aper Erymanthius) was a mythical creature that took the form of a "shaggy and wild"[1] "tameless"[2] "boar"[3] "of vast weight"[4] "and foaming jaws".[2] It was a Tegeaean,[4] Maenalusian[1] or Erymanthian[3] boar that lived in the "glens of Lampeia"[5] beside the "vast marsh of Erymanthus".[5] It would sally[6] from the "thick-wooded",[1] "cypress-bearing"[4] "heights of Erymanthus"[1] to "harry the groves of Arcady"[1] and "abuse the land of Psophis".[6]

Mythology

The fourth labour of Heracles was to bring the Erymanthian boar alive to Eurystheus in Mycenae.[5] To capture the boar, Heracles first "chased the boar with shouts"[6] and thereby routed it from a "certain thicket"[6] and then "drove the exhausted animal into deep snow."[6] He then "trapped it",[6] bound it in chains,[5] and lifted it, still "breathing from the dust",[7] and returning with the boar on "his left shoulder",[7] "staining his back with blood from the stricken wound",[7] he cast it down in the "entrance to the assembly of the Mycenaeans",[5] thus completing his fourth labour. "When the king [Eurystheus] saw him carrying the boar on his shoulders, he was terrified and hid himself in a bronze vessel."[8]

"The inhabitants of Cumae, in the land of the Opici, profess that the boar's tusks which are preserved in the sanctuary of Apollo at Cumae are the tusks of the Erymanthian boar, but the assertion is without a shred of probability."[9]

In the primitive highlands of Arcadia, where old practices lingered, the Erymanthian boar was a giant fear-inspiring creature of the wilds that lived on Mount Erymanthos, a mountain that was apparently once sacred to the Mistress of the Animals, for in classical times it remained the haunt of Artemis (Homer, Odyssey, VI.105). A boar was a dangerous animal: "When the goddess turned a wrathful countenance upon a country, as in the story of Meleager, she would send a raging boar, which laid waste the farmers' fields."[10]

Heracles and the Erymanthian Boar, by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1634 (Museo del Prado)

Cultural depictions

Chronological listing of classical literature sources for the Erymanthian boar:

  • Sophocles, Trachiniae 1097 (trans. Jebb) (Greek tragedy C5th BC)
  • Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1. 67-111 (trans. Coleridge) (Greek epic poetry C3rd BC)
  • Callimachus, Epigrams 36 (trans. Mair) (Greek poetry C3rd BC)
  • Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 4. 12. 1-2 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek history C1st BC)
  • Virgil, Aeneid 6. 801 ff (trans. Dewey) (Roman epic poetry C1st BC)
  • Lucretius, Of The Nature of Things 5. Proem 1 (trans. Leonard) (Roman philosophy C1st BC)
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses 9. 191 (trans. Melville) (Roman epic poetry C1st BC to C1st AD)
  • Ovid, Heroides 9. 87 ff (trans. Showerman) (Roman poetry C1st BC to C1st AD)
  • Philippus of Thessalonica, The Twelve Labors of Hercules (The Greek Classics ed. Miller Vol 3 1909 p. 397) (Greek epigrams C1st AD)
  • Seneca, Hercules Furens 228 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st AD)
  • Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus 17-30 (trans. Miller)
  • Statius, Thebaid 4. 297 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic poetry C1st AD)
  • Statius, Thebaid 8. 746 ff
  • Plutarch, Moralia, On the Fortune of Alexander 341. 11 ff (trans. Babbitt) (Greek philosophy C1st AD to C2nd AD)
  • Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Library 2. 5. 3-4 (trans. Frazer) (Greek mythography C2nd AD)
  • Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 30 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythography C2nd AD)
  • Pausanias, Description of Greece 8 24. 5-6 (trans. Frazer) (Greek travelogue C2nd AD)
  • Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 6. 220 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic poetry C4th AD)
  • Nonnus, Dionysiaca 25. 194 (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic poetry C5th AD)
  • Nonnos, Dionysiaca 25. 242 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic poetry C5th AD)
  • Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 4. 7. 13 ff (trans. Rand & Stewart) (Roman philosophy C6th AD)
  • Suidas s.v. Dryopes (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek Lexicon C10th AD)
  • Tzetzes, Chiliades or Book of Histories 2. 268 ff (trans. Untila et al.) (Byzantinian history C12 AD)
  • Tzetzes, Chiliades or Book of Histories 2. 494 ff

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Hercules Furens 228 ff.". Seneca's Tragedies. Vol. 1. Translated by Miller, Frank Justus. London; New York: William Heinemann; G. R Putnam's Sons. 1917. p. 21. ark:/13960/t71v5s15x.
  2. ^ a b "The Fall of Troy, Book VI. 220 ff.". Quintus Smyrnaeus The Fall Of Troy. Translated by Way, A. S. London; Cambridge, Massachusetts: William Heinemann Ltd; Harvard University Press. 1984 [1913]. p. 271. ark:/13960/t2m61f62d.
  3. ^ a b "Trachiniai. 1097". Sophocles The Plays and Fragments. Vol. 5 The Trachiniae. Translated by Jebb, R. C. Cambridge: The University Press. 1892. p. 159. ark:/13960/t6tx3f955.
  4. ^ a b c "The Heroides 9. 87 ff". Ovid Heroides And Amores. Translated by Showerman, Grant. London; New York: William Heinemann; The Macmillan Co. 1914. p. 115. ark:/13960/t76t0t11q.
  5. ^ a b c d e "The Argonautica. Book 1 67-111". "The Argonautica" of Apollonius Rhodius. Translated by Coleridge, Edward P. London: George Bell And Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1889. p. 8. ark:/13960/t03x8577n.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "The Library 2. 5. 3-4". Apollodorus the Library. Vol. 1. Translated by Frazer, Sir James George. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1921. pp. 191 with the Scholiast. ark:/13960/t00012x9f.
  7. ^ a b c "Thebaid, VIII. 731-760. 746 ff.". Statius. Vol. 2. Translated by Mozley, J. H. London ; New York: William Heinemann Ltd.; G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1928. p. 249. ark:/13960/t19k4m13k.
  8. ^ "Book 4. 12. 1-2". Diodorus of Sicily. Vol. 2. Translated by Oldfather, C. H. London; Cambridge, Massachusetts: William Heinemann Ltd; Harvard University Press. 1967 [1935]. p. 381. ark:/13960/t7qn6bw6r.
  9. ^ "Bk. VIII. Arcadia 24. 5-6". Pausanias's Description of Greece. Translated by Frazer, J. G. London; New York: Macmillan and Co. Limited; The Macmillan Company. 1898. p. 402. ark:/13960/t5t72bt15.
  10. ^ Kerenyi (1959), p. 149.

Greek Mountain Flora

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