Meleager and Atalanta by Jacob Jordaens

A painting by Flemish painter Jacob Jordaens “Meleager and Atalanta”. The size of the painting is 152 x 120 cm, canvas, oil. This work belongs to the early period of the painter’s work. At the age of twenty – twenty-five years, in addition to paintings of religious themes, Jordaens painted a lot of pictures on famous mythological subjects.

Meleager, in mythology – the hero of Aetolia, the son of the Caledonian king Oinea and Alfei, the husband of Cleopatra. When Artemis, angry that Oiney had not sacrificed her, sent a wild boar to the country, Meleager collected the most famous hunters of Greece, with the help of which he managed to kill the boar. Atalanta is an Arcadian, daughter of Yaz and Klimen; praised in Greek tales, as a glorious hunter, skillful in archery.

Atalanta was abandoned by her father, who desired her son, to Mount Parthenion, and was nourished by shepherds, who later returned her to her parents. From the arrows of her fell centaurs Roik and Gilai, who decided to pursue her. According to some legends, Atalanta took part in the Argonauts’ expedition, but according to more common tales – in the hunt for the Caledonian boar, to which she inflicted the first wound, for which Meleager brought her a hunting trophy – the head and hide of a boar.