Chapter XXIII: Meleager and Atalanta

King Oeneus lived in the city of Calydon with his wife Althaea, and they had already several children when another little son was born to them. When the child was about seven days old, his mother awoke one night and saw a fire burning on the hearth, and by the fire three women standing, who were taller and statelier than any women she had ever seen before: they were the three Fates, who are the goddesses that decide whether the lives of men shall be brightened by happiness or made heavy with misfortune. One of them said, 'I gift this child with bravery.' The second said, 'I bestow upon him a generous heart.' The third said, 'I grant him life until the day when this firebrand shall be burnt to ashes.' Then they all disappeared, and Althaea, to once got up and took the piece of stick from the fire, and when she had put it out by pouring water upon it, she stowed it away in the chest where she kept her most precious treasures. The parents named their child Meleager, and he grew up to be a strong and noble youth, fond of the chase and of war.

After Meleager had become a man, it happened one year that King Oeneus raised a number of altars of green turf in the fields at harvest-time, and placed on {84} each altar some of the corn that was first cut, in order to show his gratitude to the gods for having caused the fruits of the earth to grow and ripen; every god and every goddess had an altar except Artemis the goddess of the chase, who was forgotten. She was very angry with the king on account of this, and sent a fierce wild boar to destroy his land. This boar was much larger than any other that had ever been seen, and he had two long pointed tusks which made him very frightful to look at. He roamed about the country, and wherever he found a newly-sown field he tore up the ground and laid it waste, and he ripped open the young trees with his tusks, and broke in among the flocks, killing men and cattle. He was so fierce and powerful that no hunter had courage to attack him, and at last the evil became so serious that the king sent messengers to a number of heroes to ask them to come to Calydon, and all set out together to hunt the boar. All who were summoned promised to come, and at the appointed time they assembled at Calydon. There came also a maiden who was armed with a hunting-spear, and who would not play with the king's daughters, but said she wished to go to the hunt with the heroes.

The maiden's name was Atalanta, and she had a strange history. She was the child of a king and queen who had wished very much to have a little son, and had begged the gods to send them one. Instead of this, however, a girl was born to them, and the father was so angry that he commanded his servants to take the child to a mountain that was clothed with forests, and leave it there to be devoured by wild beasts. For a night and a day the child lay in the forest, and it was {85} nearly dead of starvation when a she-bear came by, who drooped her head sadly because her little cubs had been taken from her by some hunters. The child was frightened at the great black beast and began to cry, but the bear looked kindly at it, and when she saw what bright eyes the baby had, she growled gently and licked it with her warm tongue. Soon the child forgot its fear, and when the bear put her full udder to its mouth, it began to suck, for it was hungry and thirsty; and from that time the bear came again every day and gave it food and played with it. After some time had passed, it happened that some hunters came up the mountain in pursuit of a deer, and one of them in bending back a bush caught sight of the beautiful little girl, who was lying on the grass playing with flowers. He took her up and called to the other hunters to come and look at her, and they were so delighted at finding her that they let the deer escape. One of them carried her home in his arms, and they were as well satisfied as if they had had a most successful hunt. The house where the hunters lived was in the midst of the green-wood, and they made a soft bed for the child, and fed her with sweet milk. At first she cried continually, for she missed her bear sadly, but the hunters played with her and were so kind to her that she soon became happy again. The hunters named her Atalanta, and when she grew bigger, they took her with them when they went out hunting. Atalanta enjoyed roaming through the woods and running after the wild animals more than anything else, and she let the hunters have no peace till they gave her a spear of her own. Her feet became swift and {86} her arms strong, and she killed many animals and was a very skilful huntress, but whenever a she-bear came across her path she took great care to do her no harm. She was taller and stronger than other maidens, and at the same time very beautiful. When she heard of the hunt that King Oeneus had proclaimed, she at once set out for Calydon, expecting greatly to enjoy the dangerous chase.

King Oeneus entertained the heroes for nine days, and they amused themselves with feasts and all kinds of games. The tenth day was fixed for the hunt, and it was agreed that whoever should kill the boar was to receive the skin and the head as the prize of honour. There were present, however, some brothers of Queen Althaea who were ill-mannered and discourteous, and who said that Atalanta should not go with them, for that it would be a disgrace to them all their lives if they went out hunting with a woman; but Meleager had conceived a great love for Atalanta, and would not allow her to be excluded. So she set out with the others for the forest where the boar had his lair. They were attended by their servants, who roused the wild beast by making a great clapping with their hands, and drove him out into an open space in the middle of the forest, while the heroes stood round among the trees. At first he remained in the middle of the open space tearing up the earth with his tusks, his eyes burning like fire and his bristles standing up straight from his back, and grunting so frightfully that the heart of many a brave hero beat, and that not altogether for joy. But when the heroes hurled their spears at him, the boar rushed to where the first spear came {87} from and ripped open the body of the hero with his tusks, so that he was soon lying dead in a pool of his own blood. After this he spied another hero, and with him it fared no better than with the first. Then another hero aimed at him, but he shot too high, and the spear hit one of his friends and pierced him through; so three lives were already sacrificed, and yet the boar had not lost a drop of blood. It was now the turn of Atalanta to throw her spear, and she hit the wild boar in the back causing the blood to gush out; then someone else hit him in the eye, and at last the spear of Meleager pierced his side at a vital spot and inflicted a mortal wound. He could no longer stand up, and was obliged to vent his fury on the innocent earth, and after rolling about in great pain for a little while, he died.

The heroes cut off his head, and severed his skin from his body and gave it to Meleager as the prize of honour, because it was he who had given the wild boar his death-wound. But Meleager said, 'Atalanta was the first to hit the beast,' and he presented her with the prize as a token of love and regard. The skin made in truth a splendid mantle, reaching from the maiden's shoulder right down to her feet, and as she stood in the forest, radiant with beauty, with the skin thrown over her left shoulder, and with the bleeding head in one hand while in the other she held her hunting-spear, she looked like the goddess Artemis returning from the chase. But the brothers of Queen Althaea who had wished to prevent Atalanta from going out hunting with them, were greatly annoyed, and they spoke rudely to her and snatched away the prize from her. This made Meleager very angry, and a violent quarrel {88} took place, in which Meleager drew his sword and slew his uncles: he was quickly roused to anger, and they had provoked him beyond his power of endurance, but, as soon as they were dead he felt very sorry for his mother's sake, for he knew that she was very fond of her brothers, unmannerly fellows though they were. The servants made biers out of green branches and laid the dead men upon them, and they all, both heroes and servants, went back together into the city.

But a man who had taken the part of the two brothers went on in front to the palace and told the queen that her brothers had been murdered by Meleager. Then the queen's sorrow passed all bounds, and she wept and tore her hair. It was the custom at that time, that if a man was murdered his relations should avenge his death upon the murderer, as this was considered a way of doing honour to his memory, and in the first burst of her resentment she fetched the piece of stick on which the life of Meleager depended, and threw it into a fire that happened to be burning on the hearth. The flames gradually consumed it, and as the last spark went out, Meleager, who was on his way home with the other heroes, fell down dead. By the time the queen heard that her son was dead however, her anger had already passed away, and she was filled with unspeakable remorse for having cut short his life. She did not weep as she had done before, but she felt that she could not bear to live any longer, and she went into her bed-chamber and hanged herself. When this was known, everyone was deeply grieved; the old king would not leave his room, and for a long time refused to eat or drink, and the heroes {89} dispersed to their homes without caring to stay for the hunting feast.

Atalanta went back to her forest leaving the skin of the boar behind her, for she would have had no pleasure in keeping what would always have reminded her of the death of Meleager. She roamed about the forest as before from morning till night, and was never so happy as when she was among the green trees. Now the fame of her beauty had spread far and wide, and many suitors came to ask her to marry them. But she did not wish to marry, and as her suitors would not leave off pressing her, she said that anyone who liked might race with her, and if he beat her he should be her husband, but if she overtook him he must die. Many of her lovers lost their lives in this manner, for though Atalanta always gave a good start, she very soon overtook her competitor and stabbed him in the back with her hunting-spear.

After a time, however, a man named Milanion resolved to try his chance, who was beloved by the goddess Aphrodite on account of his great beauty, and as she was unwilling that he should lose his life like the others, she gave him three golden apples and told him how to make use of them. He hid them in the folds of his dress, and as soon as he heard Atalanta coming up behind him, he took out one of the apples and threw it down on the ground where it glittered so beautifully in the sunshine that Atalanta could not resist stooping to pick it up. Milanion thus gained a minute, and the next time he found that she was close behind him he threw down the second apple, and again Atalanta allowed him to escape while she stopped for {90} it. A third time the same thing happened when they were at a very short distance from the goal, and thus Milanion reached it first and won the race, and Atalanta became his wife and went home with him. And he was such a noble hero that she never repented of having allowed herself to be conquered by the golden apples.

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