I. ATALANTA THE HUNTRESS

I

They came once more together, the heroes of the quest, to hunt a boar
in Calydon--Jason and Peleus came, Telamon, Theseus, and rough Arcas,
Nestor and Helen's brothers Polydeuces and Castor. And, most noted of
all, there came the Arcadian huntress maid, Atalanta.

Beautiful they all thought her when they knew her aboard the Argo. But
even more beautiful Atalanta seemed to the heroes when she came amongst
them in her hunting gear. Her lovely hair hung in two bands across her
shoulders, and over her breast hung an ivory quiver filled with arrows.
They said that her face with its wide and steady eyes was maidenly for
a boy's, and boyish for a maiden's face. Swiftly she moved with her
head held high, and there was not one amongst the heroes who did not
say, "Oh, happy would that man be whom Atalanta the unwedded would take
for her husband!"

All the heroes said it, but the one who said it most feelingly was the
prince of Calydon, young Meleagrus. He more than the other heroes felt
the wonder of Atalanta's beauty.

Now the boar they had come to hunt was a monster boar. It had come into
Calydon and it was laying waste the fields and orchards and destroying
the people's cattle and horses. That boar had been sent into Calydon by
an angry divinity. For when Oeneus, the king of the country, was making
sacrifice to the gods in thanksgiving for a bounteous harvest, he had
neglected to make sacrifice to the goddess of the wild things, Artemis.
In her anger Artemis had sent the monster boar to lay waste Oeneus's
realm.

It was a monster boar indeed--one as huge as a bull, with tusks as
great as an elephant's; the bristles on its back stood up like spear
points, and the hot breath of the creature withered the growth on the
ground. The boar tore up the corn in the fields and trampled down the
vines with their clusters and heavy bunches of grapes; also it rushed
against the cattle and destroyed them in the fields. And no hounds the
huntsmen were able to bring could stand before it. And so it came to
pass that men had to leave their farms and take refuge behind the walls
of the city because of the ravages of the boar. It was then that the
rulers of Calydon sent for the heroes of the quest to join with them in
hunting the monster.

Calydon itself sent Prince Meleagrus and his two uncles, Plexippus and
Toxeus. They were brothers to Meleagrus's mother, Althaea. Now Althaea
was a woman who had sight