Praised be all gods that look toward Calydon.

  Althaea.

  Good news and brief; but by whose happier hand?

  Herald.

  A maiden’s and a prophet’s and thy son’s.

  Althaea.

  Well fare the spear that severed him and life.

  Herald.

  Thine own, and not an alien, hast thou blest

  Althaea.

  Twice be thou too for my sake blest and his.

  Herald.

  At the king’s word I rode afoam for thine.

  Althaea.

  Thou sayest he tarrieth till they bring the spoil?

  Herald.

  Hard by the quarry, where they breathe, O queen.

  Althaea.

  Speak thou their chance; but some bring flowers and crown
  These gods and all the lintel, and shed wine,
  Fetch sacrifice and slay, for heaven is good.

  Herald.

  Some furlongs northward where the brakes begin
  West of that narrowing range of warrior hills
  Whose brooks have bled with battle when thy son
  Smote Acarnania, there all they made halt,
  And with keen eye took note of spear and hound,
  Royally ranked; Laertes island-born,
  The young Gerenian Nestor, Panopeus,
  And Cepheus and Ancaeus, mightiest thewed,
  Arcadians; next, and evil-eyed of these,
  Arcadian Atalanta, with twain hounds
  Lengthening the leash, and under nose and brow
  Glittering with lipless tooth and fire-swift eye;
  But from her white braced shoulder the plumed shafts
  Rang, and the bow shone from her side; next her
  Meleager, like a sun in spring that strikes
  Branch into leaf and bloom into the world,
  A glory among men meaner; Iphicles,
  And following him that slew the biform bull
  Pirithous, and divine Eurytion,
  And, bride-bound to the gods, Aeacides. 
  Then Telamon his brother, and Argive-born
  The seer and sayer of visions and of truth,
  Amphiaraus; and a four-fold strength,
  Thine, even thy mother’s and thy sister’s sons. 
  And recent from the roar of foreign foam
  Jason, and Dryas twin-begot with war,
  A blossom of bright battle, sword and man
  Shining; and Idas, and the keenest eye
  Of Lynceus, and Admetus twice-espoused,
  And Hippasus and Hyleus, great in heart. 
  These having halted bade blow horns, and rode
  Through woods and waste lands cleft by stormy streams,
  Past yew-trees and the heavy hair of pines,
  And where the dew is thickest under oaks,
  This way and that; but questing up and down
  They saw no trail nor scented; and one said,
  Plexippus, Help, or help not, Artemis,
  And we will flay thy boarskin with male hands;
  But saying, he ceased and said not that he would,
  Seeing where the green ooze of a sun-struck marsh
  Shook with a thousand reeds untunable,
  And in their moist and multitudinous flower