645
Charged with entreaties, thine especial friends,
And chosen for that cause, from all the host. 
Slight not their embassy, nor put to shame
Their intercession.  We confess that once
Thy wrath was unreprovable and just. 650
Thus we have heard the heroes of old times
Applauded oft, whose anger, though intense,
Yet left them open to the gentle sway
Of reason and conciliatory gifts. 
I recollect an ancient history, 655
Which, since all here are friends, I will relate. 
The brave AEtolians and Curetes met
Beneath the walls of Calydon, and fought
With mutual slaughter; the AEtolian powers
In the defence of Calydon the fair, 660
And the Curetes bent to lay it waste: 
That strife Diana of the golden throne
Kindled between them, with resentment fired
That Oeneus had not in some fertile spot
The first fruits of his harvest set apart 665
To her; with hecatombs he entertained
All the Divinities of heaven beside,
And her alone, daughter of Jove supreme,
Or through forgetfulness, or some neglect,
Served not; omission careless and profane! 670
She, progeny of Jove, Goddess shaft-arm’d,
A savage boar bright-tusk’d in anger sent,
Which haunting Oeneus’ fields much havoc made. 
Trees numerous on the earth in heaps he cast
Uprooting them, with all their blossoms on. 675
But Meleager, Oeneus’ son, at length
Slew him, the hunters gathering and the hounds
Of numerous cities; for a boar so vast
Might not be vanquish’d by the power of few,
And many to their funeral piles he sent. 680
Then raised Diana clamorous dispute,
And contest hot between them, all alike,
Curetes and AEtolians fierce in arms
The boar’s head claiming, and his bristly hide. 
So long as warlike Meleager fought, 685
AEtolia prosper’d, nor with all their powers
Could the Curetes stand before the walls. 
But when resentment once had fired the heart
Of Meleager, which hath tumult oft
Excited in the breasts of wisest men, 690
(For his own mother had his wrath provoked
Althaea) thenceforth with his wedded wife
He dwelt, fair Cleopatra, close retired. 
She was Marpessa’s daughter, whom she bore
To Idas, bravest warrior in his day 695
Of all on earth.  He fear’d not ’gainst the King
Himself Apollo, for the lovely nymph
Marpessa’s sake, his spouse, to bend his bow. 
Her, therefore, Idas and Marpessa named
Thenceforth Alcyone, because the fate 700
Of sad Alcyone Marpessa shared,
And wept like her, by Phoebus forced away. 
Thus Meleager, tortured with the pangs
Of wrath indulged, with Cleopatra dwelt,