d, "If she go not to the chase, neither will I go
with you." So they suffered her, and the chase began. At first the
boar fled, trampling down those whom he chanced to meet, and rending
them with his tusks, but at last he stood fiercely at bay, and fought
furiously, and many of the hunters fell, until at length the spear of
Atalante pierced his side, and then Meleagros slew him.

Then was there great gladness as they dragged the body of the boar to
Kalydon, and made ready to divide the spoil. But the anger of Artemis
was not yet soothed, and she roused a strife between the men of
Pleuron and the men of Kalydon. For Meleagros sought to have the head,
and the Kouretes of Pleuron cared not to take the hide only for their
portion. So the strife grew hot between them, until Meleagros slew the
chieftain of the Kouretes, who was the brother of Althaia, his mother.
Then he seized the head of the boar, and bare it to Atalante, and
said, "Take, maiden, the spoils are rightly thine. From thy spear came
the first wound which smote down the boar; and well hast thou earned
the prize for the fleetness of thy foot and the sureness of thy aim."

So Atalante took the spoils and carried them to her home in the
Arcadian land, but the men of Pleuron were full of wrath, and they
made war on the men of Kalydon. Many times they fought, but in every
battle the strong arm of Meleagros and his stout heart won the victory
for the men of his own city, and the Kouretes began to grow faint in
spirit, so that they quailed before the spear and sword of Meleagros.
But presently Meleagros was seen no more with his people, and his
voice was no longer heard cheering them on to the battle. No more
would he take lance in hand or lift up his shield for the strife, but
he tarried in his own house by the side of the beautiful Kleopatra,
whom Idas, her father, gave to him to be his wife.

For the heart of his mother was filled with grief and rage when she
heard the story of the deadly strife, and that Meleagros, her child,
had slain her brother. In heavy wrath and sorrow she sat down upon the
earth, and she cast the dust from the ground into the air, and with
wild words called on Hades, the unseen King, and Persephone, who
shares his dark throne: "Lord of the lands beneath the earth, stretch
forth thy hand against Meleagros, my child. He has quenched the love
of a mother in my brother's blood, and I will that he should die." And
even as she prayed, the awful E