| Erymathian Boar | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Erymathian Boar |
|
First Appearance |
Greek Myth |
|
Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
Heracles and the Erymanthian Boar, by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1634 (Museo del Prado)
In Greek mythology, the Erymanthian boar was a mythical creature that took the form of a "shaggy and wild" "tameless" "boar" "of vast weight" "and foaming jaws".
The fourth labour of Heracles was to bring the Erymanthian boar alive to Eurystheus in Mycenae. To capture the boar, Heracles first "chased the boar with shouts" and thereby routed it from a "certain thicket" and then "drove the exhausted animal into deep snow." He then "trapped it", bound it in chains, and lifted it, still "breathing from the dust", and returning with the boar on "his left shoulder", "staining his back with blood from the stricken wound", he cast it down in the "entrance to the assembly of the Mycenaeans", 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."
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. 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."
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Erymathian boar from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Public Domain Appearances[]
- Trachiniae
- Argonautica
- Epigrams
- Library of History
- Aeneid
- Of The Nature of Things 5
- Metamorphoses
- Heroides
- The Twelve Labors of Hercules
- Hercules Furens
- Hercules Oetaeus
- Thebaid
- Thebaid
- Moralia
- The Library
- Fabulae
- Description of Greece
- Fall of Troy
- Dionysiaca
- The Consolation of Philosophy
- Dryopes
- Chiliades or Book of Histories
Notes[]
- The Caledonian boar is often mistaken for the Erymanthian boar, which was among Hercules' labors. Both of these boars are similar in Greek mythology.
- According to Caledonian boar's myth, it was sent by Artimis to ravage the region of Calydon in Aetolia because King Oeneus had failed to honor her in his rites to the gods until he sent the greatest heroes and hunters to hunt down the boar in the event known as the Caledonian boar hunt.