rinys, who wanders through the air,
heard her words and swore to accomplish the doom. But Meleagros was
yet more wrathful when he knew that his mother had laid her curse upon
him, and therefore he would not go forth out of his chamber to the
aid of his people in the war.

So the Kouretes grew more and more mighty, and their warriors came up
against the City of Kalydon, and would no longer suffer the people to
come without the walls. And everywhere there was faintness of heart
and grief of spirit, for the enemy had wasted their fields and slain
the bravest of the men, and little store remained to them of food. Day
by day Oineus besought his son, and the great men of the city fell at
the knees of Meleagros and prayed him to come out to their help, but
he would not hearken. Still he tarried in his chamber with his wife,
Kleopatra, by his side, and heeded not the hunger and the wailings of
the people. Fiercer and fiercer waxed the roar of war; the loosened
stones rolled from the tottering wall, and the battered gates were
scarce able to keep out the enemy. Then Kleopatra fell at her
husband's knee, and she took him by the hand, and called him gently by
his name, and said, "O Meleagros, if thou wilt think of thy wrath,
think also of the evils which war brings with it--how when a city is
taken, the men are slain, and the mother with her child, the old and
the young are borne away into slavery. If the men of Pleuron win the
day, thy mother may repent her of the curse which she has laid upon
thee; but thou wilt see thy children slain and me a slave."

[Illustration: MELPOMENE. (_Muse of Tragedy._)]

Then Meleagros started from his couch and seized his spear and shield.
He spake no word, but hastened to the walls, and soon the Kouretes
fell back before the spear which never missed its mark. Then he
gathered the warriors of his city, and bade them open the gates, and
went forth against the enemy. Long and dreadful was the battle, but at
length the Kouretes turned and fled, and the danger passed away from
the men of Kalydon.

But the Moirai still remembered the doom of the burning brand, and the
unpitying Erinys had not forgotten the curse of Althaia, and they
moved the men of Kalydon to withhold the prize of his good deeds from
the chieftain, Meleagros. "He came not forth," they said, "save at the
prayer of his wife. He hearkened not when we besought him, he heeded
not our misery and tears; why should we give him that whi