e threw the fatal brand into
the midst of the flames.

That billet either utters, or seems to utter, a groan, and, caught by
the reluctant flames, it is consumed. Unsuspecting, and at a distance,
Meleager is burned by that flame, and feels his entrails scorched by the
secret fires; but with fortitude he supports the mighty pain. Still, he
grieves that he dies by an inglorious death, and without {shedding his}
blood, and says that the wounds of Ancaeus were a happy lot. And while,
with a sigh, he calls upon his aged father, and his brother, and his
affectionate sisters, and with his last words the companion of his
bed,[73] perhaps, too, his mother {as well}; the fire and his torments
increase; and {then} again do they diminish. Both of them are
extinguished together, and by degrees his spirit vanishes into the light
air.

Lofty Calydon {now} lies prostrate. Young and old mourn, both people and
nobles lament; and the Calydonian matrons of Evenus,[74] tearing their
hair, bewail him. Lying along upon the ground, his father pollutes his
white hair and his aged features with dust, and chides his prolonged
existence. But her own hand, conscious to itself of the ruthless deed,
exacted punishment of the mother, the sword piercing her entrails.[75]
If a God had given me a mouth sounding with a hundred tongues, and an
enlarged genius, and the whole of Helicon {besides}; {still} I could not
enumerate the mournful expressions of his unhappy sisters. Regardless of
shame, they beat their livid bosoms, and while the body {still} exists,
they embrace it, and embrace it again; they give kisses to it, {and}
they give kisses to the bier {there} set. After {he is reduced to}
ashes, they pour them, when gathered up, to their breasts; and they lie
prostrate around the tomb, and kissing his name cut out in the stone,
they pour their tears upon his name. Them, the daughter of Latona, at
length satiated with the calamities of the house of Parthaon,[76] bears
aloft on wings springing from their bodies, except Gorge,[77] and the
daughter-in-law of noble Alcmena; and she stretches long wings over
their arms, and makes their mouths horny, and sends them, {thus}
transformed, through the air.

[Footnote 23: _Cocalus._--Ver. 261. He was the king of Sicily, who
received Daedalus with hospitality.]

[Footnote 24: _And censers._--Ver. 265. Acerris. The 'acerra' was
properly a box used for holding incense for the purposes of
sacrif