Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 8.45.2: Atalanta in the Calydonian boar hunt

Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 8.45.2: Atalanta in the Calydonian boar hunt

mid 2nd century CE

Travel writing

Literary source

Besides the exploits shared by the Tegeans with the Arcadians, which include the Trojan war, the Persian wars and the battle at Dipaea with the Lacedaemonians, the Tegeans have, besides the deeds already mentioned, the following claims of their own to fame. Ancaeus, the son of Lycurgus, though wounded, stood up to the Calydonian boar, which Atalanta shot at, being the first to hit the beast. For this feat she received, as a prize for valor, the head and hide of the boar.

William H. S. Jones, Pausanias, Description of Greece, vol. 4, Books 8.22-10 (= Loeb Classical Library; 297), London 1935.

Τεγεάταις δὲ παρὲξ ἢ τὰ Ἀρκάδων κοινά, ἐν οἷς ἔστι μὲν ὁ πρὸς Ἰλίῳ πόλεμος, ἔστι δὲ τὰ Μηδικά τε καὶ ἐν Διπαιεῦσιν ὁ πρὸς Λακεδαιμονίους ἀγών, παρὲξ οὖν τῶν καταλελεγμένων ἰδίᾳ Τεγεάταις ἐστὶν αὐτοῖς τοσάδε ἐς δόξαν. τὸν γὰρ ἐν Καλυδῶνι ὗν Ἀγκαῖος ὑπέμεινεν ὁ Λυκούργου τρωθείς, καὶ Ἀταλάντη τοξεύει τὸν ὗν καὶ ἔτυχε πρώτη τοῦ θηρίου: τούτων ἕνεκα αὐτῇ ἡ κεφαλή τε τοῦ ὑὸς καὶ τὸ δέρμα ἀριστεῖα ἐδόθη.

Frederick Spiro (ed.), Pausaniae Graeciae Descriptio, vol. 2, Leipzig 1903.