“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 that her Acarnanian kinsmen might prevail against him.  Upon the hard earth she knelt:  she beat the ground with her hands, and heaped the dust about her; and, weeping bitter tears, she called upon Hades to avenge her of Meleager.  And even as she prayed, the pitiless Furies, wandering amid the darkness, heard her cries, and came, obedient to her wishes.

“When Meleager heard that his mother had turned against him, he withdrew in sorrow to his own house, and sought comfort and peace with his wife, fair Cleopatra; and he would not lead his warriors any more to battle against the Acarnanians.  Then the enemy besieged the city:  a fearful tumult rose about the gates; the high towers were assaulted, and everywhere the Calydonians were driven back dismayed and beaten.