Hero Tales | Page 6

queen cared for anything which mortal men
might offer her. Ah, woful mistake was that! For, in her anger at the
slight, Artemis sent a savage boar, with ivory tusks and foaming mouth,
to overrun the lands of Calydon. Many a field did the monster ravage,
many a tree uproot; and all the growing vines, which late had borne so
rich a vintage, were trampled to the ground.
"Sadly troubled was Oineus, and he knew not what to do. For the fierce
beast could not be slain, but with his terrible tusks he had sent many a
rash hunter to an untimely death. Then the young man Meleager said, 'I
will call together the heroes of Greece, and we will hunt the boar in the
wood of Calydon.'
"So at the call of Meleager, the warriors flocked from every land, to
join in the hunt of the fierce wild boar. Among them came Castor and
Pollux, the twin brothers; and Idas, the boaster, the father-in-law of
Meleager; and mighty Jason, captain of the Argo; and Atalanta, the
swift-footed daughter of Iasus, of Arcadia; and many Acarnanian
huntsmen led by the brothers of Queen Althea. Thither also did I hasten,
although men spitefully said that I was far more skilful in taking tame
beasts than in slaying wild ones.
"Nine days we feasted in the halls of Oineus; and every day we tried
our skill with bows and arrows, and tested the strength of our
well-seasoned spears. On the tenth, the bugles sounded, and hounds

and huntsmen gathered in the courtyard of the chief, chafing for the
hunt.
"Soon we sallied forth from the town, a hundred huntsmen, with dogs
innumerable. Through the fields and orchards, laid waste by the savage
beast, we passed; and Atalanta, keen of sight and swift of foot, her long
hair floating in the wind behind her, led all the rest. It was not long
until, in a narrow dell once green with vines and trees, but now strewn
thick with withered branches, we roused the fierce creature from his
lair.
"At first he fled, followed closely by the baying hounds. Then suddenly
he faced his foes; with gnashing teeth and bloodshot eyes, he charged
furiously upon them. A score of hounds were slain outright; and
Cepheus, of Arcadia, rushing blindly onward, was caught by the beast,
and torn in pieces by his sharp tusks. Then swift-footed Atalanta,
bounding forward, struck the beast a deadly blow with her spear. He
stopped short, and ceased his furious onslaught.
"Terrible were the cries of the wounded creature, as he made a last
charge upon the huntsmen. But Meleager with a skilful sword-thrust
pierced his heart and the beast fell weltering in his gore. Great joy filled
the hearts of the Calydonians when they saw the scourge of their land
laid low and helpless. They quickly flayed the beast, and the heroes
who had shared in the hunt divided the flesh among them; but the head
and the bristly hide they offered to Meleager.
"'Not to me does the prize belong,' he cried, 'but to Atalanta, the
swift-footed huntress. For the first wound--the true death stroke,
indeed--was given by her; and to her, woman though she be, all honor
and the prize must be awarded.'
"With these words, he bore the grinning head and the bristly hide to the
young huntress, and laid them at her feet. Then his uncles, the brothers
of Queen Althea, rushed angrily forward, saying that no woman should
ever bear a prize away from them; and they seized the hide, and would
have taken it away, had not Meleager forbidden them. Yet they would
not loose their hold upon the prize, but drew their swords, and
wrathfully threatened Meleager's life.
"The hero's heart grew hot within him, and he shrank not from the
affray. Long and fearful was the struggle--uncles against nephew; but
in the end the brothers of Althea lay bleeding upon the ground, while

the victor brought again the boar's hide, and laid it the second time at
Atalanta's feet. The fair huntress took the prize, and carried it away
with her to deck her father's hall in the pleasant Arcadian land. And the
heroes, when they had feasted nine other days with King Oineus,
betook themselves to their own homes.
"But the hearts of the Acarnanian hunters were bitter toward Meleager,
because no part of the wild boar was awarded to them. They called
their chiefs around them, and all their brave men, and made war upon
King Oineus and Meleager. Many battles did they fight round Calydon;
yet so long as Meleager led his warriors to the fray, the Acarnanians
fared but ill.
"Then Queen Althea, filled with grief for her brothers' untimely fate,
forgot her love for her son, and prayed