The Story of Meleager and Atalanta



8:406 From him the Caledonians sought relief;
8:407 Though valiant Meleagros was their chief.
8:408 The cause, a boar, who ravag'd far and near:
8:409 Of Cynthia's wrath, th' avenging minister.
8:410 For Oeneus with autumnal plenty bless'd,
8:411 By gifts to Heav'n his gratitude express'd:
8:412 Cull'd sheafs, to Ceres; to Lyaeus, wine;
8:413 To Pan, and Pales, offer'd sheep and kine;
8:414 And fat of olives, to Minerva's shrine.
8:415 Beginning from the rural Gods, his hand
8:416 Was lib'ral to the Pow'rs of high command:
8:417 Each deity in ev'ry kind was bless'd,
8:418 'Till at Diana's fane th' invidious honour ceas'd.

8:419 Wrath touches ev'n the Gods; the Queen of Night,
8:420 Fir'd with disdain, and jealous of her right,
8:421 Unhonour'd though I am, at least, said she,
8:422 Not unreveng'd that impious act shall be.
8:423 Swift as the word, she sped the boar away,
8:424 With charge on those devoted fields to prey.
8:425 No larger bulls th' Aegyptian pastures feed,
8:426 And none so large Sicilian meadows breed:
8:427 His eye-balls glare with fire suffus'd with blood;
8:428 His neck shoots up a thick-set thorny wood;
8:429 His bristled back a trench impal'd appears,
8:430 And stands erected, like a field of spears;
8:431 Froth fills his chaps, he sends a grunting sound,
8:432 And part he churns, and part befoams the ground,
8:433 For tusks with Indian elephants he strove,
8:434 And Jove's own thunder from his mouth he drove.
8:435 He burns the leaves; the scorching blast invades
8:436 The tender corn, and shrivels up the blades:
8:437 Or suff'ring not their yellow beards to rear,
8:438 He tramples down the spikes, and intercepts the year:
8:439 In vain the barns expect their promis'd load,
8:440 Nor barns at home, nor recks are heap'd abroad:
8:441 In vain the hinds the threshing-floor prepare,
8:442 And exercise their flail in empty air.
8:443 With olives ever-green the ground is strow'd,
8:444 And grapes ungather'd shed their gen'rous blood.
8:445 Amid the fold he rages, nor the sheep
8:446 Their shepherds, nor the grooms their bulls can keep.

8:447 From fields to walls the frighted rabble run,
8:448 Nor think themselves secure within the town:
8:449 'Till Meleagros, and his chosen crew,
8:450 Contemn the danger, and the praise pursue.
8:451 Fair Leda's twins (in time to stars decreed)
8:452 One fought on foot, one curb'd the fiery steed;
8:453 Then issu'd forth fam'd Jason after these,
8:454 Who mann'd the foremost ship that sail'd the seas;
8:455 Then Theseus join'd with bold Perithous came;
8:456 A single concord in a double name:
8:457 The Thestian sons, Idas who swiftly ran,
8:458 And Ceneus, once a woman, now a man.
8:459 Lynceus, with eagle's eyes, and lion's heart;
8:460 Leucippus, with his never-erring dart;
8:461 Acastus, Phileus, Phoenix, Telamon,
8:462 Echion, Lelix, and Eurytion,
8:463 Achilles' father, and great Phocus' son;
8:464 Dryas the fierce, and Hippasus the strong;
8:465 With twice old Iolas, and Nestor then but young.
8:466 Laertes active, and Ancaeus bold;
8:467 Mopsus the sage, who future things foretold;
8:468 And t' other seer, yet by his wife unsold.
8:469 A thousand others of immortal fame;
8:470 Among the rest, fair Atalanta came,
8:471 Grace of the woods: a diamond buckle bound
8:472 Her vest behind, that else had flow'd upon the ground,
8:473 And shew'd her buskin'd legs; her head was bare,
8:474 But for her native ornament of hair;
8:475 Which in a simple knot was ty'd above,
8:476 Sweet negligence! unheeded bait of love!
8:477 Her sounding quiver, on her shoulder ty'd,
8:478 One hand a dart, and one a bow supply'd.
8:479 Such was her face, as in a nymph display'd
8:480 A fair fierce boy, or in a boy betray'd
8:481 The blushing beauties of a modest maid.
8:482 The Caledonian chief at once the dame
8:483 Beheld, at once his heart receiv'd the flame,
8:484 With Heav'ns averse. O happy youth, he cry'd;
8:485 For whom thy fates reserve so fair a bride!
8:486 He sigh'd, and had no leisure more to say;
8:487 His honour call'd his eyes another way,
8:488 And forc'd him to pursue the now-neglected prey.

8:489 There stood a forest on a mountain's brow,
8:490 Which over-look'd the shaded plains below.
8:491 No sounding ax presum'd those trees to bite;
8:492 Coeval with the world, a venerable sight.
8:493 The heroes there arriv'd, some spread around
8:494 The toils; some search the footsteps on the ground:
8:495 Some from the chains the faithful dogs unbound.
8:496 Of action eager, and intent in thought,
8:497 The chiefs their honourable danger sought:
8:498 A valley stood below; the common drain
8:499 Of waters from above, and falling rain:
8:500 The bottom was a moist, and marshy ground,
8:501 Whose edges were with bending oziers crown'd:
8:502 The knotty bulrush next in order stood,
8:503 And all within of reeds a trembling wood.

8:504 From hence the boar was rous'd, and sprung amain,
8:505 Like lightning sudden, on the warrior train;
8:506 Beats down the trees before him, shakes the ground.
8:507 The forest echoes to the crackling sound;
8:508 Shout the fierce youth, and clamours ring around.
8:509 All stood with their protended spears prepar'd,
8:510 With broad steel heads the brandish'd weapons glar'd.
8:511 The beast impetuous with his tusks aside
8:512 Deals glancing wounds; the fearful dogs divide:
8:513 All spend their mouths aloof, but none abide.
8:514 Echion threw the first, but miss'd his mark,
8:515 And stuck his boar-spear on a maple's bark.
8:516 Then Jason; and his javelin seem'd to take,
8:517 But fail'd with over-force, and whiz'd above his back.
8:518 Mopsus was next; but e'er he threw, address'd
8:519 To Phoebus, thus: O patron, help thy priest:
8:520 If I adore, and ever have ador'd
8:521 Thy pow'r divine, thy present aid afford;
8:522 That I may reach the beast. The God allow'd
8:523 His pray'r, and smiling, gave him what he cou'd:
8:524 He reach'd the savage, but no blood he drew:
8:525 Diana unarm'd the javelin, as it flew.

8:526 This chaf'd the boar, his nostrils flames expire,
8:527 And his red eye-balls roul with living fire.
8:528 Whirl'd from a sling, or from an engine thrown,
8:529 Amid the foes, so flies a mighty stone,
8:530 As flew the beast: the left wing put to flight,
8:531 The chiefs o'er-born, he rushes on the right.
8:532 Eupalamos and Pelagon he laid
8:533 In dust, and next to death, but for their fellows' aid.
8:534 Onesimus far'd worse, prepar'd to fly,
8:535 The fatal fang drove deep within his thigh,
8:536 And cut the nerves: the nerves no more sustain
8:537 The bulk; the bulk unprop'd, falls headlong on the plain.

8:538 Nestor had fail'd the fall of Troy to see,
8:539 But leaning on his lance, he vaulted on a tree;
8:540 Then gath'ring up his feet, look'd down with fear,
8:541 And thought his monstrous foe was still too near.
8:542 Against a stump his tusk the monster grinds,
8:543 And in the sharpen'd edge new vigour finds;
8:544 Then, trusting to his arms, young Othrys found,
8:545 And ranch'd his hips with one continu'd wound.

8:546 Now Leda's twins, the future stars, appear;
8:547 White were their habits, white their horses were:
8:548 Conspicuous both, and both in act to throw,
8:549 Their trembling lances brandish'd at the foe:
8:550 Nor had they miss'd; but he to thickets fled,
8:551 Conceal'd from aiming spears, not pervious to the steed.
8:552 But Telamon rush'd in, and happ'd to meet
8:553 A rising root, that held his fastned feet;
8:554 So down he fell, whom, sprawling on the ground,
8:555 His brother from the wooden gyves unbound.

8:556 Mean-time the virgin-huntress was not slow
8:557 T' expel the shaft from her contracted bow:
8:558 Beneath his ear the fastned arrow stood,
8:559 And from the wound appear'd the trickling blood.
8:560 She blush'd for joy: but Meleagros rais'd
8:561 His voice with loud applause, and the fair archer prais'd.
8:562 He was the first to see, and first to show
8:563 His friends the marks of the successful blow.
8:564 Nor shall thy valour want the praises due,
8:565 He said; a virtuous envy seiz'd the crew.
8:566 They shout; the shouting animates their hearts,
8:567 And all at once employ their thronging darts:
8:568 But out of order thrown, in air they joyn,
8:569 And multitude makes frustrate the design.
8:570 With both his hands the proud Ancaeus takes,
8:571 And flourishes his double-biting ax:
8:572 Then, forward to his fate, he took a stride
8:573 Before the rest, and to his fellows cry'd,
8:574 Give place, and mark the diff'rence, if you can,
8:575 Between a woman warrior, and a man,
8:576 The boar is doom'd; nor though Diana lend
8:577 Her aid, Diana can her beast defend.
8:578 Thus boasted he; then stretch'd, on tiptoe stood,
8:579 Secure to make his empty promise good.
8:580 But the more wary beast prevents the blow,
8:581 And upward rips the groin of his audacious foe.
8:582 Ancaeus falls; his bowels from the wound
8:583 Rush out, and clotted blood distains the ground.

8:584 Perithous, no small portion of the war,
8:585 Press'd on, and shook his lance: to whom from far
8:586 Thus Theseus cry'd; O stay, my better part,
8:587 My more than mistress; of my heart, the heart.
8:588 The strong may fight aloof; Ancaeus try'd
8:589 His force too near, and by presuming dy'd:
8:590 He said, and while he spake his javelin threw,
8:591 Hissing in air th' unerring weapon flew;
8:592 But on an arm of oak, that stood betwixt
8:593 The marks-man and the mark, his lance he fixt.

8:594 Once more bold Jason threw, but fail'd to wound
8:595 The boar, and slew an undeserving hound,
8:596 And thro' the dog the dart was nail'd to ground.

8:597 Two spears from Meleager's hand were sent,
8:598 With equal force, but various in th' event:
8:599 The first was fix'd in earth, the second stood
8:600 On the boar's bristled back, and deeply drank his blood.
8:601 Now while the tortur'd savage turns around,
8:602 And flings about his foam, impatient of the wound,
8:603 The wound's great author close at hand provokes
8:604 His rage, and plies him with redoubled strokes;
8:605 Wheels, as he wheels; and with his pointed dart
8:606 Explores the nearest passage to his heart.
8:607 Quick, and more quick he spins in giddy gires,
8:608 Then falls, and in much foam his soul expires.
8:609 This act with shouts heav'n-high the friendly band
8:610 Applaud, and strain in theirs the victor's hand.
8:611 Then all approach the slain with vast surprize,
8:612 Admire on what a breadth of earth he lies,
8:613 And scarce secure, reach out their spears afar,
8:614 And blood their points, to prove their partnership of war.

8:615 But he, the conqu'ring chief, his foot impress'd
8:616 On the strong neck of that destructive beast;
8:617 And gazing on the nymph with ardent eyes,
8:618 Accept, said he, fair Nonacrine, my prize,
8:619 And, though inferior, suffer me to join
8:620 My labours, and my part of praise, with thine:
8:621 At this presents her with the tusky head
8:622 And chine, with rising bristles roughly spread.
8:623 Glad she receiv'd the gift; and seem'd to take
8:624 With double pleasure, for the giver's sake.
8:625 The rest were seiz'd with sullen discontent,
8:626 And a deaf murmur through the squadron went:
8:627 All envy'd; but the Thestyan brethren show'd
8:628 The least respect, and thus they vent their spleen aloud:
8:629 Lay down those honour'd spoils, nor think to share,
8:630 Weak woman as thou art, the prize of war:
8:631 Ours is the title, thine a foreign claim,
8:632 Since Meleagrus from our lineage came.
8:633 Trust not thy beauty; but restore the prize,
8:634 Which he, besotted on that face, and eyes,
8:635 Would rend from us: at this, enflam'd with spite,
8:636 From her they snatch the gift, from him the giver's right.

8:637 But soon th' impatient prince his fauchion drew,
8:638 And cry'd, Ye robbers of another's due,
8:639 Now learn the diff'rence, at your proper cost,
8:640 Betwixt true valour, and an empty boast.
8:641 At this advanc'd, and sudden as the word,
8:642 In proud Plexippus' bosom plung'd the sword:
8:643 Toxeus amaz'd, and with amazement slow,
8:644 Or to revenge, or ward the coming blow,
8:645 Stood doubting; and while doubting thus he stood,
8:646 Receiv'd the steel bath'd in his brother's blood.

8:647 Pleas'd with the first, unknown the second news;
8:648 Althaea to the temples pays their dues
8:649 For her son's conquest; when at length appear
8:650 Her grisly brethren stretch'd upon the bier:
8:651 Pale at the sudden sight, she chang'd her cheer,
8:652 And with her cheer her robes; but hearing tell
8:653 The cause, the manner, and by whom they fell,
8:654 'Twas grief no more, or grief and rage were one
8:655 Within her soul; at last 'twas rage alone;
8:656 Which burning upwards in succession, dries
8:657 The tears, that stood consid'ring in her eyes.

8:658 There lay a log unlighted on the hearth,
8:659 When she was lab'ring in the throws of birth
8:660 For th' unborn chief; the fatal sisters came,
8:661 And rais'd it up, and toss'd it on the flame:
8:662 Then on the rock a scanty measure place
8:663 Of vital flax, and turn'd the wheel apace;
8:664 And turning sung, To this red brand and thee,
8:665 O new born babe, we give an equal destiny;
8:666 So vanish'd out of view. The frighted dame
8:667 Sprung hasty from her bed, and quench'd the flame:
8:668 The log, in secret lock'd, she kept with care,
8:669 And that, while thus preserv'd, preserv'd her heir.
8:670 This brand she now produc'd; and first she strows
8:671 The hearth with heaps of chips, and after blows;
8:672 Thrice heav'd her hand, and heav'd, she thrice repress'd:
8:673 The sister and the mother long contest,
8:674 Two doubtful titles, in one tender breast:
8:675 And now her eyes, and cheeks with fury glow,
8:676 Now pale her cheeks, her eyes with pity flow:
8:677 Now low'ring looks presage approaching storms,
8:678 And now prevailing love her face reforms:
8:679 Resolv'd, she doubts again; the tears she dry'd
8:680 With burning rage, are by new tears supply'd;
8:681 And as a ship, which winds and waves assail
8:682 Now with the current drives, now with the gale,
8:683 Both opposite, and neither long prevail:
8:684 She feels a double force, by turns obeys
8:685 Th' imperious tempest, and th' impetuous seas:
8:686 So fares Althaea's mind, she first relents
8:687 With pity, of that pity then repents:
8:688 Sister, and mother long the scales divide,
8:689 But the beam nodded on the sister's side.
8:690 Sometimes she softly sigh'd, then roar'd aloud;
8:691 But sighs were stifled in the cries of blood.

8:692 The pious, impious wretch at length decreed,
8:693 To please her brothers' ghost, her son should bleed:
8:694 And when the fun'ral flames began to rise,
8:695 Receive, she said, a sister's sacrifice;
8:696 A mother's bowels burn: high in her hand,
8:697 Thus while she spoke, she held the fatal brand;
8:698 Then thrice before the kindled pile she bow'd,
8:699 And the three Furies thrice invok'd aloud:
8:700 Come, come, revenging sisters, come, and view
8:701 A sister paying her dead brothers due:
8:702 A crime I punish, and a crime commit;
8:703 But blood for blood, and death for death is fit:
8:704 Great crimes must be with greater crimes repaid,
8:705 And second fun'rals on the former laid.
8:706 Let the whole houshold in one ruin fall,
8:707 And may Diana's curse o'ertake us all.
8:708 Shall Fate to happy Oenus still allow
8:709 One son, while Thestius stands depriv'd of two?
8:710 Better three lost, than one unpunish'd go.
8:711 Take then, dear ghosts (while yet admitted new
8:712 In Hell you wait my duty), take your due:
8:713 A costly off'ring on your tomb is laid,
8:714 When with my blood the price of yours is paid.

8:715 Ah! whither am I hurry'd? Ah! forgive,
8:716 Ye shades, and let your sister's issue live;
8:717 A mother cannot give him death; tho' he
8:718 Deserves it, he deserves it not from me.

8:719 Then shall th' unpunish'd wretch insult the slain,
8:720 Triumphant live, nor only live, but reign?
8:721 While you, thin shades, the sport of winds, are tost
8:722 O'er dreary plains, or tread the burning coast.
8:723 I cannot, cannot bear; 'tis past, 'tis done;
8:724 Perish this impious, this detested son:
8:725 Perish his sire, and perish I withal;
8:726 And let the house's heir, and the hop'd kingdom fall.

8:727 Where is the mother fled, her pious love,
8:728 And where the pains with which ten months I strove!
8:729 Ah! had'st thou dy'd, my son, in infant years,
8:730 Thy little herse had been bedew'd with tears.

8:731 Thou liv'st by me; to me thy breath resign;
8:732 Mine is the merit, the demerit thine.
8:733 Thy life by double title I require;
8:734 Once giv'n at birth, and once preserv'd from fire:
8:735 One murder pay, or add one murder more,
8:736 And me to them who fell by thee restore.

8:737 I would, but cannot: my son's image stands
8:738 Before my sight; and now their angry hands
8:739 My brothers hold, and vengeance these exact;
8:740 This pleads compassion, and repents the fact.

8:741 He pleads in vain, and I pronounce his doom:
8:742 My brothers, though unjustly, shall o'ercome.
8:743 But having paid their injur'd ghosts their due,
8:744 My son requires my death, and mine shall his pursue.

8:745 At this, for the last time, she lifts her hand,
8:746 Averts her eyes, and, half unwilling, drops the brand.
8:747 The brand, amid the flaming fewel thrown,
8:748 Or drew, or seem'd to draw, a dying groan;
8:749 The fires themselves but faintly lick'd their prey,
8:750 Then loath'd their impious food, and would have shrunk away.

8:751 Just then the heroe cast a doleful cry,
8:752 And in those absent flames began to fry:
8:753 The blind contagion rag'd within his veins;
8:754 But he with manly patience bore his pains:
8:755 He fear'd not Fate, but only griev'd to die
8:756 Without an honest wound, and by a death so dry.
8:757 Happy Ancaeus, thrice aloud he cry'd,
8:758 With what becoming fate in arms he dy'd!
8:759 Then call'd his brothers, sisters, sire around,
8:760 And, her to whom his nuptial vows were bound,
8:761 Perhaps his mother; a long sigh she drew,
8:762 And his voice failing, took his last adieu.
8:763 For as the flames augment, and as they stay
8:764 At their full height, then languish to decay,
8:765 They rise and sink by fits; at last they soar
8:766 In one bright blaze, and then descend no more:
8:767 Just so his inward heats, at height, impair,
8:768 'Till the last burning breath shoots out the soul in air.

8:769 Now lofty Calidon in ruins lies;
8:770 All ages, all degrees unsluice their eyes,
8:771 And Heav'n, and Earth resound with murmurs, groans, and cries.
8:772 Matrons and maidens beat their breasts, and tear
8:773 Their habits, and root up their scatter'd hair:
8:774 The wretched father, father now no more,
8:775 With sorrow sunk, lies prostrate on the floor,
8:776 Deforms his hoary locks with dust obscene,
8:777 And curses age, and loaths a life prolong'd with pain.
8:778 By steel her stubborn soul his mother freed,
8:779 And punish'd on her self her impious deed.

8:780 Had I a hundred tongues, a wit so large
8:781 As could their hundred offices discharge;
8:782 Had Phoebus all his Helicon bestow'd
8:783 In all the streams, inspiring all the God;
8:784 Those tongues, that wit, those streams, that God in vain
8:785 Would offer to describe his sisters' pain:
8:786 They beat their breasts with many a bruizing blow,
8:787 'Till they turn livid, and corrupt the snow.
8:788 The corps they cherish, while the corps remains,
8:789 And exercise, and rub with fruitless pains;
8:790 And when to fun'ral flames 'tis born away,
8:791 They kiss the bed on which the body lay:
8:792 And when those fun'ral flames no longer burn
8:793 (The dust compos'd within a pious urn),
8:794 Ev'n in that urn their brother they confess,
8:795 And hug it in their arms, and to their bosoms press.

8:796 His tomb is rais'd; then, stretch'd along the ground,
8:797 Those living monuments his tomb surround:
8:798 Ev'n to his name, inscrib'd, their tears they pay,
8:799 'Till tears, and kisses wear his name away.

8:800 But Cynthia now had all her fury spent,
8:801 Not with less ruin than a race content:
8:802 Excepting Gorge, perish'd all the seed,
8:803 And her whom Heav'n for Hercules decreed.
8:804 Satiate at last, no longer she pursu'd
8:805 The weeping sisters; but With Wings endu'd,
8:806 And horny beaks, and sent to flit in air;
8:807 Who yearly round the tomb in feather'd flocks repair.