the country round. Happy was
this feast, and the hours were bright with smiles and sunshine; and men
forgot sorrow and labor, and thought only of the gladness of life.

"Then Oineus took of the first-fruits of his fields and his vineyards
and his orchards, and offered them with much thankfulness to the givers
of good. But he forgot to deck the shrine of Artemis with gifts,
little thinking that the huntress queen cared for anything which mortal
men might offer her. Ah, woful mistake was that! For, in her anger at
the slight, Artemis sent a savage boar, with ivory tusks and foaming
mouth, to overrun the lands of Calydon. Many a field did the monster
ravage, many a tree uproot; and all the growing vines, which late had
borne so rich a vintage, were trampled to the ground.

"Sadly troubled was Oineus, and he knew not what to do. For the fierce
beast could not be slain, but with his terrible tusks he had sent many
a rash hunter to an untimely death. Then the young man Meleager said,
'I will call together the heroes of Greece, and we will hunt the boar
in the wood of Calydon.'

"So at the call of Meleager, the warriors flocked from every land, to
join in the hunt of the fierce wild boar. Among them came Castor and
Pollux, the twin brothers; and Idas, the boaster, the father-in-law of
Meleager; and mighty Jason, captain of the Argo; and Atalanta, the
swift-footed daughter of Iasus, of Arcadia; and many Acarnanian
huntsmen led by the brothers of Queen Althea. Thither also did I
hasten, although men spitefully said that I was far more skilful in
taking tame beasts than in slaying wild ones.

"Nine days we feasted in the halls of Oineus; and every day we tried
our skill with bows and arrows, and tested the strength of our
well-seasoned spears. On the tenth, the bugles sounded, and hounds and
huntsmen gathered in the courtyard of the chief, chafing for the hunt.

"Soon we sallied forth from the town, a hundred huntsmen, with dogs
innumerable. Through the fields and orchards, laid waste by the savage
beast, we passed; and Atalanta, keen of sight and swift of foot, her
long hair floating in the wind behind her, led all the rest. It was
not long until, in a narrow dell once green with vines and trees, but
now strewn thick with withered branches, we roused the fierce creature
from his lair.

"At first he fled, followed closely by the baying hounds. Then
suddenly he faced his foes; with gnashing teeth and bloodshot e