her mother had the same fate as Alcyone,
or Halcyone.]

[Footnote 74: _Evenus._--Ver. 527. Evenus was a river of AEtolia.]

[Footnote 75: _Piercing her entrails._--Ver. 531. Hyginus says
that she hanged herself.]

[Footnote 76: _Parthaon._--Ver. 541. Parthaon was the grandfather
of Meleager and his sisters, Oeneus being his son.]

[Footnote 77: _Gorge._--Ver. 542. Gorge married Andraemon, and
Deianira was the wife of Hercules, the son of Alcmena. The two
sisters of Meleager who were changed into birds were Eurymede and
Melanippe.]

EXPLANATION.

It is generally supposed that the story of the chase of the
Calydonian boar, though embracing much of the fabulous, is still
based upon historical facts. Homer, in the 9th book of the Iliad,
alludes to it, though in somewhat different terms from the account
here given by Ovid; and from the ancient historians we learn, that
Oeneus, offering the first fruits to the Gods, forgot Diana in his
sacrifices. A wild boar, the same year having ravaged some part of
his dominions, and particularly a vineyard, on the cultivation of
which he had bestowed much pains, these circumstances, combined,
gave occasion for saying that the boar had been sent by Diana. As
the wild beast had killed some country people, Meleager collected
the neighbouring nobles, for the purpose of destroying it. Plexippus
and Toxeus, having been killed, in the manner mentioned by the Poet,
Althaea, their sister, in her grief, devoted her son to the Furies;
and, perhaps, having used some magical incantations, the story of
the fatal billet was invented.

Homer does not mention the death of Meleager; but, on the contrary,
says that his mother, Althaea, was pacified. Some writers, however,
think that he really was poisoned by his mother. The story of the
change of the sisters of Meleager into birds is only the common
poetical fiction, denoting the extent of their grief at the untimely
death of their brother.

FABLE V. [VIII.547-610]

Theseus, returning from the chase of the Calydonian boar, is stopped
by an inundation of the river Acheloues, and accepts of an invitation
from the God of that river, to come to his grotto. After the repast,
Acheloues gives him the history of the five Naiads, who had been
changed into the islands called Echinades, and an account of his own
amour with the Nymph Perimele, whom, being thr