The quickness of his genius, once so fleet,
Still in his wings remains, and in his feet;
Still, though transform’d, his ancient name he keeps,
And with low flight the new-shorn stubble sweeps,
Declines the lofty trees, and thinks it best
To brood in hedge-rows o’er its humble nest;
And, in remembrance of the former ill,
Avoids the heights and precipices still.
At length, fatigued with long laborious flights,
On fair Sicilia’s plains the artist lights;
Where Cocalus, the king, that gave him aid,
Was, for his kindness, with esteem repaid.
Athens no more her doleful tribute sent,
That hardship gallant Theseus did prevent;
Their temples hung with garlands, they adore
Each friendly god, but most Minerva’s power;
To her, to Jove, to all, their altars smoke,
They each with victims and perfumes invoke.
Now talking Fame, through every Grecian town,
Had spread, immortal Theseus, thy renown.
From him, the neighbouring nations, in distress,
In suppliant terms implore a kind redress.
Story of Meleager and Atalanta
Meleager, the son of Oeneus, King of Aetolia, destroys a frightful boar, which desolates the whole country by the command of Diana, as a punishment for the neglect of her worship—The conqueror bestows the head and skin of the animal on Atalanta, who first wounded it—This partiality inflames the resentment of the uncles of the youth, who endeavour to rob the heroine of her honourable present, and are killed by their nephew in the attempt—Althaea, the mother of Meleager, no sooner hears this intelligence, than she snatches a brand, on which the life of her son is said to depend, who expires as soon as it is consumed—The daughters of Althaea, while bewailing the fate of their brother, are changed into birds.
From him the Calydonians sought relief.
Though valiant Meleagrus was their chief.
The cause, a boar, which ravaged far and near;
Of Cynthia’s wrath the avenging minister.
For Oeneus, with autumnal plenty bless’d,
By gifts to heaven his gratitude express’d;
Cull’d sheafs to Ceres; to Lyaeus wine;
To Pan and Pales offer’d sheep and kine;
And fat of olives to Minerva’s shrine.
Beginning from the rural gods, his hand
Was liberal to the powers of high command:
Each deity in every kind was bless’d,
Till at Diana’s fane the invidious honour ceased.
Wrath touches ev’n the gods: the queen of night,
Fired with disdain, and jealous of her right,
“Unhonour’d though I am, at least,” said she,
“Not unrevenged that impious act shall be.”
Swift as the word, she sped the boar away,
With charge on those devoted fields to prey.
No larger bulls the Egyptian pastures feed,
And none so large Sicilian meadows breed;
His eyeballs glare with fire suffused with blood;
His neck shoots up a thickset thorny wood;
His bristled back a trench impaled appears,
And stands erected, like a field of spears;
Froth fills his chaps, he sends a grunting sound,
And part he churns, and part befoams the ground;
For tusks with Indian elephants he strove,
And Jove’s own thunder from his mouth he drove;
He burns the leaves, the scorching blast invades
The tender corn, and shrivels up the blades;
Or suff’ring not their yellow beards to rear,
He tramples down the spikes, and intercepts the year.
In vain the barns expect their promised load,
Nor barns at home, nor ricks are heap’d abroad
In vain the hinds the thrashing-floor prepare,
And exercise their flails in empty air.
With olives ever green the ground is strew’d,
And grapes ungather’d shed their generous blood.
Amid the fold he rages, nor the sheep
Their shepherds, nor the grooms their bulls can keep.
From fields to walls the frighted rabble run,
Nor think themselves secure, within the town,
Till Meleagrus, and his chosen crew,
Contemn the danger, and the praise pursue.
Fair Leda’s twins (in time to stars decreed)
One fought on foot, one curb’d the fiery steed;
Then issued forth famed Jason after these,
Who mann’d the foremost ship that sail’d the seas,
Then Theseus join’d with bold Pirithous came,
A single concord in a double name;
The Thestian sons, Idas, who swiftly ran,
And Ceneus, once a woman, now a man;
Lynceus, with eagle’s eyes and lion’s heart;
Leucippus, with his never-erring dart;
Acastus, Phileus, Phoenix, Telamon,
Echion, Lelix, and Eurytion;
Achilles’ father, and great Phocus’ son;
Dryas the fierce, and Hippasus the strong;
With twice old Iolas, and Nestor, then but young;
Laertes active, and Ancaeus bold;
Mopsus, the sage, who future things foretold,
And the other seer,2 yet by his wife unsold;
A thousand others of immortal fame;
Among the rest fair Atalanta came,
Grace of the woods: a diamond buckle bound
Her vest behind, that else had flow’d upon the ground,
And show’d her buskin’d legs; her head was bare,
But for her native ornament of hair,
Which in a simple knot was tied above:
Sweet negligence! unheeded bait of love!
Her sounding quiver on her shoulder tied,
One hand a dart, and one a bow supplied.
Such was her face, as in a nymph display’d
A fair fierce boy, or in a boy betray’d
The blushing beauties of a modest maid.
The Calydonian chief at once the dame
Beheld, at once his heart received the flame,
With heavens averse. “O, happy youth!” he cried,
“For whom thy Fates reserve so fair a bride.”
He sigh’d, and had no leisure more to say;
His honour call’d his eyes another way,
And forced him to pursue the now neglected prey.
There stood a forest on a mountain’s brow,
Which overlook’d the shaded plains below:
No sounding axe presumed those trees to bite;
Coeval with the world, a venerable sight.
The heroes there arrived, some spread around
The toils; some search the footsteps on the ground
Some from the chains the faithful dogs unbound.
Of action eager, and intent in thought,
The chiefs their honourable danger sought:
A valley stood below, the common drain
Of waters from above, and falling rain;
The bottom was a moist and marshy ground,
Whose edges were with bending osiers crown’d:
The knotty bulrush next in order stood,
And all within of reeds a trembling wood.
From hence the boar was roused, and sprung amain,
Like lightning sudden on the warrior train,
Beats down the trees before him, shakes the ground,
The forest echoes to the crackling sound;
Shout the fierce youth, and clamours ring around.
All stood with their protended spears prepared,
With broad steel heads the brandish’d weapons glared.
The beast impetuous, with his tusks, aside
Deals glancing wounds; the fearful dogs divide:
All spend their mouths aloof, but none abide.
Echion threw the first, but miss’d his mark,
And stuck his boar-spear on a maple’s bark.
Then Jason, and his javelin seem’d
