Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/137

 THE GREEK HEROES 123 ravaging the fields. But in a quarrel that arose out of the award of the prize of victory he slew a brother of his mother. She besought the gods of the lower world to avenge the murder on her son. Soon after- wards he fell in battle. The post-Homeric poets add that the Moerae had informed his mother soon after his birth that her son would live only until a piece of wood then glowing on the hearth should be consumed by the fire ; whereupon she quickly quenched it and saved it ; but after the murder of her brother she caused the death of her son by burning the stick. 160. Another later addition to the myth was that the shy Arcadian-Boeotian huntress Atalanta, who is closely akin to Artemis, the hunting goddess, was associated with Meleager. In consequence of his love for her he promised her the head of the boar as a prize of honor, because she had been the first to wound the animal; thus he fell into the quarrel with his uncle and met his death, as told above. But Atalanta would have for her husband only one that could defeat her in a foot race, the con- dition being that all defeated suitors should be put to death. Milanion (according to another version, Hip- pomenes) received from Aphrodite three golden apples, which at her advice he flung before Atalanta during the race. While she was picking them up he reached the goal before her, and so she was compelled to become his wife. Althaea : Ovid, Met. viii. 446 sq. ; Hyginus, Fab. clxxi. Meleager: Homer, II. ix. 543 sq. ; Ovid, Met. viii. 270 sq. ; Hyginus, Fab. clxxiv. ; Chaucer, Knight's Tale 1213. Atalanta : Ovid, Met. x. 565 sg., Ars Amat. iii. 775 ; Hyginus, Fab. clxxxv. ; Chaucer, Knight's Tale 1212.