Atalanta in Calydon | Page 2

mesato purdae tina pronoian, kataithousa paidos daphoinon
dalon elik', epei molon matrothen keladese; summetron te diai biou
moirokranton es amar.
Aesch. Cho. 602-612

THE ARGUMENT.

Althaea, daughter of Thestius and Eurythemis, queen of Calydon, being
with child of Meleager her first-born son, dreamed that she brought
forth a brand burning; and upon his birth came the three Fates and
prophesied of him three things, namely these; that he should have great
strength of his hands, and good fortune in this life, and that he should
live no longer when the brand then in the fire were consumed:
wherefore his mother plucked it forth and kept it by her. And the child
being a man grown sailed with Jason after the fleece of gold, and won
himself great praise of all men living; and when the tribes of the north
and west made war upon Aetolia, he fought against their army and
scattered it. But Artemis, having at the first stirred up these tribes to
war against Oeneus king of Calydon, because he had offered sacrifice
to all the gods saving her alone, but her he had forgotten to honour, was
yet more wroth because of the destruction of this army, and sent upon
the land of Calydon a wild boar which slew many and wasted all their
increase, but him could none slay, and many went against him and
perished. Then were all the chief men of Greece gathered together, and
among them Atalanta daughter of Iasius the Arcadian, a virgin, for
whose sake Artemis let slay the boar, seeing she favoured the maiden
greatly; and Meleager having despatched it gave the spoil thereof to
Atalanta, as one beyond measure enamoured of her; but the brethren of
Althaea his mother, Toxeus and Plexippus, with such others as misliked
that she only should bear off the praise whereas many had borne the
labour, laid wait for her to take away her spoil; but Meleager fought
against them and slew them: whom when Althaea their sister beheld
and knew to be slain of her son, she waxed for wrath and sorrow like as
one mad, and taking the brand whereby the measure of her son's life
was meted to him, she cast it upon a fire; and with the wasting thereof
his life likewise wasted away, that being brought back to his father's
house he died in a brief space, and his mother also endured not long
after for very sorrow; and this was his end, and the end of that hunting.

ATALANTA IN CALYDON.
CHIEF HUNTSMAN.

Maiden, and mistress of the months and stars Now folded in the
flowerless fields of heaven, Goddess whom all gods love with threefold
heart, Being treble in thy divided deity, A light for dead men and dark
hours, a foot Swift on the hills as morning, and a hand To all things
fierce and fleet that roar and range Mortal, with gentler shafts than
snow or sleep; Hear now and help and lift no violent hand, But
favourable and fair as thine eye's beam Hidden and shown in heaven,
for I all night Amid the king's hounds and the hunting men Have
wrought and worshipped toward thee; nor shall man See goodlier
hounds or deadlier edge of spears, But for the end, that lies unreached
at yet Between the hands and on the knees of gods, O fair-faced sun
killing the stars and dews And dreams and desolation of the night! Rise
up, shine, stretch thine hand out, with thy bow Touch the most dimmest
height of trembling heaven, And burn and break the dark about thy
ways, Shot through and through with arrows; let thine hair Lighten as
flame above that nameless shell Which was the moon, and thine eyes
fill the world And thy lips kindle with swift beams; let earth Laugh, and
the long sea fiery from thy feet Through all the roar and ripple of
streaming springs And foam in reddening flakes and flying flowers
Shaken from hands and blown from lips of nymphs Whose hair or
breast divides the wandering wave With salt close tresses cleaving lock
to lock, All gold, or shuddering and unfurrowed snow; And all the
winds about thee with their wings, And fountain-heads of all the
watered world; Each horn of Acheloüs, and the green Euenus, wedded
with the straitening sea. For in fair time thou comest; come also thou,
Twin-born with him, and virgin, Artemis, And give our spears their
spoil, the wild boar's hide. Sent in thine anger against us for sin done
And bloodless altars without wine or fire. Him now consume thou; for
thy sacrifice With sanguine-shining steam divides the dawn, And one,
the maiden rose of all thy maids, Arcadian Atalanta, snowy-souled,
Fair as the snow and footed as the wind,