Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/176

 144 HISTORY OF GREECE. While the shouts of expected victory were heard from the assail- ants at the gates, the ancient men of -ZEtolia and the priests of the gods earnestly besought Meleager to come forth,' offering him hia choice of the fattest land in the plain of Kalydon. His dearest friends, his father CEneus, his sisters, and even his mother herself added their supplications, but he remained inflexible. At length the Kuretes penetrated into the town and began to burn it : at this last moment, Kleopatra his wife addressed to him her pathetic appeal, to avert from her and from his family the desperate hor- rors impending over them all. Meleager could no longer resist he put on his armor, went forth from his chamber, and repelled the enemy. But when the danger was over, his countrymen with- held from him the splendid presents which they had promised, because he had rejected their prayers, and had come forth only when his own haughty caprice dictated. 2 Such is the legend of Meleager in the Iliad : a verse in the second book mentions simply the death of Meleager, without far- ther details, as a reason why Thoas appeared in command of the JEtolians before Troy. 3 Though the circumstance is indicated only indirectly, there seems little doubt that Homer must have con- ceived the death of the hero as brought about by the maternal curse : the unrelenting Erinnys executed to the letter the invoca- tions of Althaea, though she herself must have been willing to re- tract them. Later poets both enlarged and altered the fable. The Hesi- odic Eoiai, as well as the old poem called the Minyas, represented Meleager as having been slain by Apollo, who aided the Kuretes in the war ; and the incident of the burning brand, though quite at variance with Homer, is at least as old as the tragic poet Phry- nichus, earlier than ^schylus. 4 The Mcerae, or Fates, presenting themselves to Althaea shortly after the birth of Meleager, pre- dicted that the child would die so soon as the brand then burning on the fire near at hand should be consumed. Althaea snatched it from the flames and extinguished it, preserving it with the ntmost care, until she became incensed against Meleager for the 1 These priests formed the Chorus in the Meleager of SophoklesCSchol id Iliad, ib. 575>
 * Iliad, is. 525-595. Iliad, ii. 642.
 * Paunan. x. 31. 2. The Ulevpuvtai, a lost tragedy of Phrynichus.