Meleager (lived 1st century BC)

Greek philosopher and epigrammatist. Born at Gadara in the Decapolis, he was educated at Tyre, but spent the remainder of his life on the island of Kos. He compiled an anthology of epigrams, known as the Garland, for which he wrote an introduction, comparing each poet to an appropriate flower. His own epigrams are mostly erotic, and successfully combine sophistication with feeling.

Meleager

In Greek mythology, one of the Argonauts. He organized a hunt to kill the huge boar that ravaged his father's kingdom of Calydon. A quarrel arose over distribution of the spoils, and Meleager killed his two uncles.

When Meleager was seven days old his mother, Althaea, had heard the Fates declare that the boy would live so long as a log then burning on the hearth remained unconsumed. She had extinguished the log and hid it in a chest; but to avenge her brothers after the hunt she threw it back into the fire and Meleager died.