Althaea was in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

 the daughter of King Thestius

Thestius

In Greek mythology, Thestius was the son of either Ares and Demonice, or Agenor and Epicasta. He was the father of Iphicles with Leucippe, or Deidameia, daughter of Perieres, or else with Eurythemis, daughter of Cleoboea and mother of his other children, Althaea, Eurypylus, Evippus, Hypermnestra,...

 and Eurythemis, and was sister to Leda

Leda (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Leda was daughter of the Aetolian king Thestius, and wife of the king Tyndareus , of Sparta. Her myth gave rise to the popular motif in Renaissance and later art of Leda and the Swan...

, Hypermnestra

Hypermnestra

Hypermnestra , in Greek mythology, is a name that refers to several characters.-The Danaid:Hypermnestra was the daughter of Danaus. Danaus was the twin brother of Aegyptus and son of Belus. He had fifty daughters, the Danaides, and Aegyptus had fifty sons. Aegyptus commanded that his sons marry the...

, Iphiclus

Iphicles

In Greek mythology, Iphicles is the name of three different people:*The half-brother of Heracles, being the son of Alcmene and her human husband Amphitryon, whereas Heracles was her son by Zeus. Iphicles was the father of Heracles' charioteer Iolaus by Automedusa, daughter of Alcathous...

, Euippus, &c. She was also the wife of Oeneus

Oeneus

In Greek mythology, Oeneus, or Oineus was a Calydonian king, son of Porthaon and Euryte, husband of Althaea and father of Deianeira, Meleager, Toxeus, Clymenus, Periphas, Agelaus, Thyreus , Gorge, Eurymede, Mothone, Perimede and Melanippe...

, king of Calydon, and mother of five sons, Meleager

Meleager

In Greek mythology, Meleager was a hero venerated in his temenos at Calydon in Aetolia. He was already famed as the host of the Calydonian boar hunt in the epic tradition that was reworked by Homer....

, Melanippe

Melanippe

In Greek mythology, Melanippe referred to several different people.* Daughter of the Centaur Chiron. Also known as Hippe or Euippe. She bore a daughter to Aeolus, Melanippe or Arne...

 (one of the Meleagrids

Meleagrids

In Greek mythology, the Meleagrids were the daughters of Althaea and Oeneus, sisters of Meleager. When their brother died, they cried incessantly until Artemis changed them into guineafowl and transferred them to the island of Leros...

), Troxeus, Thyreus, Clymenus, and two daughters, Deianeira and Gorge

Gorge (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the name Gorge may refer to:*Gorge, a daughter of Oeneus and Althaea, and wife of Andraemon. Artemis changed her sisters into birds because of their constant mourning over the death of their brother Meleager, but spared Gorge and her sister Deianeira...

. According to some writers, Meleager was the result of a liaison with the Greek god Ares

Ares

Ares is the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and...

, and Deianeira the progeny of Althaea and the god Dionysus

Dionysus

Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...

.

Althaea is especially celebrated in ancient story about the fate of her son Meleager, who also became the cause of her death. When Meleager was born, the Moirae

Moirae

The Moirae, Moerae or Moirai , in Greek mythology, were the white-robed incarnations of destiny . Their number became fixed at three...

 (the fates) predicted he would only live until a brand, burning in the family hearth, was consumed by fire. Althaea immediately hid the brand. Later, Meleager killed his mother's two brothers in an argument and she placed the brand back upon the fire, killing him. Some say that she later hanged herself, others that she killed herself with a dagger.

Other sources

• Thomas Bulfinch
  Thomas Bulfinch
  Thomas Bulfinch was an American writer, born in Newton, Massachusetts. Bulfinch belonged to a well educated Bostonian merchant family of modest means. His father was Charles Bulfinch, the architect of the Massachusetts State House in Boston and parts of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C....
  
  . Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable or Stories of Gods and Heroes. 1855 (Chapter XVIII).