eaten
of his bread; surely ye are not come hither to slay me." But they
shouted the more fiercely, and they hurled spears at Bellerophon; so
he stretched forth his hand in the greatness of his strength, and did
battle for his life until all the Lykians lay dead before him.

Weary in body and sad of heart, Bellerophon entered the hall where the
King was feasting with his chieftains. And the King knew that
Bellerophon could not have come thither unless he had first slain all
the warriors whom he had sent forth to lie in wait for him. But he
dissembled his wrath, and said, "Welcome, Bellerophon, bravest and
mightiest of the sons of men. Thy toils are done, and the time of rest
is come for thee. Thou shalt wed my daughter, and share with me my
kingly power."

Then the minstrels praised the deeds of Bellerophon, and there was
feasting for many days when he wedded the daughter of the King. But
not yet was his doom accomplished; and once again the dark cloud
gathered around him, laden with woe and suffering. Far away from his
Lykian home, the wrath of Zeus drove him to the western land where the
sun goes down into the sea. His heart was brave and guileless still,
as in the days of his early youth, but the strength of his arm was
weakened, and the light of his eye was now dim. Sometimes the might
was given back to his limbs, and his face shone with its ancient
beauty; and then, again, he wandered on in sadness and sorrow, as a
man wanders in a strange path through the dark hours of night, when
the moon is down. And so it was that when Bellerophon reached the
western sea, he fell asleep and died, and the last sight which he saw
before his eyes were closed was the red glare of the dying sun, as he
broke through the barred clouds and plunged beneath the sea.

ALTHAIA AND THE BURNING BRAND.

There was feasting in the halls of Oineus, the chieftain of Kalydon,
in the AEtolian land, and all prayed for wealth and glory for the
chief, and for his wife, Althaia, and for the child who had on that
day been born to them. And Oineus besought the King of gods and men
with rich offerings, that his son, Meleagros, might win a name greater
than his own, that he might grow up stout of heart and strong of arm,
and that in time to come men might say, "Meleagros wrought mighty
works and did good deeds to the people of the land."

But the mighty Moirai, whose word even Zeus himself may not turn
aside, had fixed the doom of Meleagros. The ch