Oeneus
（
Οἰνεύς). A king of Calydon in Aetolia, son of Portheus
or of Porthaon. He married Althaea, the daughter of Thestius, by whom he had, among other
children, Meleager and Deïanira. After Althaea's death, he married Periboea or
Melanippé, the daughter of Hipponoüs, by whom he became the father of
Tydeus, though others made Tydeus his son by his own daughter Gorgé. In a sacrifice
which Oeneus made to all the gods, upon reaping the rich produce of his fields, he forgot
Artemis, and the goddess, to revenge this neglect, sent a wild boar to lay waste the territory
of Calydon. The animal was at last killed, by Meleager and the neighbouring princes of Greece,
in a celebrated chase known by the name of the chase of the Calydonian boar. (See
Meleager.) After the death of Meleager, Oeneus was
dethroned and imprisoned by the sons of his brother Agrius. Diomedes, having come secretly
from the city of Argos, slew all the sons of Agrius but two, who escaped to the
Peloponnesus; and then, giving the throne of Calydon to Audraemon, son-in-law of Oeneus, who
was himself now too old to reign, led the latter with him to Argolis. Oeneus was afterwards
slain by the two sons of Agrius, who had fled into the Peloponnesus. Diomedes buried him in
Argolis, on the spot where the city of Oenoë, called after Oeneus, was subsequently
erected. Oeneus is said to have been the first that received the vine from Bacchus. The god
taught him how to cultivate it, and the juice of the grape was called after his name (
οἶνος, “wine”) (
Apollod.
i. 8;
Hyg. Fab. 129).
