But Dante,
recording the words of the great Celestial Eagle, echoed Ovid's phrase
about a preliminary beating of wings.
recording the words of the great Celestial Eagle, echoed Ovid's phrase
about a preliminary beating of wings.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v2
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handle.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
Icarus and Perbix
Ovid then told how Daedalus left Crete.
According to tradition, Minos was offended with the artificer be-
cause he aided Theseus and Ariadne, and he imprisoned in the labyrinth
both Daedalus and his son Icarus. Herodotus had spoken of the Egyp-
tian labyrinth as being entirely covered with a roof. Evidently the
Greeks thought of the Cretan labyrinth as having at least one court
open to the sky. Daedalus planned to escape by flying through the air.
Collecting a large number of feathers, he attached them to light frames
and made them into two pairs of wings. One pair he fastened to his
arms with glue, the other he fastened to the arms of his son. A bird,
which has the advantage of a light body and powerful muscles, is able to
fly by beating his wings. Many peoples have supposed erroneously that
a human being can do the same. Daedalus planned to rise in this manner
and escape from Crete.
Before leaving the ground he cautioned Icarus to avoid flying low,
because damp of the sea might weigh down his feathers, and to avoid
flying high, because the sun would melt the glue. Daedalus and Icarus
then departed in a northeasterly direction towards Miletus. No reason
was given for their taking this particular course. It was assumed that
Icarus must have been associated with the region of Miletus, because
that part of the sea was called Icarian and because one of its islands
was called Icaria. Daedalus flew safely at a middle height. Icarus, de-
lighted with the new experience, mounted higher and higher. The sun
melted the glue, his wings dropped off, and he perished in the sea which
bears his name. Turning westwards, Daedalus arrived at Camicus in
Sicily and took refuge with King Cocalus. Minos pursued him thither
and demanded possession of him. Cocalus promised to give him up and
meanwhile entertained Minos at his court. But the daughters of Cocalus
treacherously put Minos to death.
By the middle of the fifth century B. C. , this tale had become well
known. Herodotus alluded to the pursuit of Daedalus and the violent
death of Minos in Sicily. Sophocles treated the theme in his Men of
Camicus, which now is lost. The Manual repeated the whole story, asso-
ciating Icarus definitely with the island of Icaria. According to the
Manual, Hercules found his body cast up on the shore and buried it
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? ICARUS AND PERDIX
there. The Manual alluded also to the circumstances under which Minos
was killed. He was taking one of those primitive baths which are obtained
by standing on the ground floor of a building and having a servant pour
water through an opening in the floor above. The daughters of Cocalus
arranged to have this water boiling hot, an idea which Ovid afterwards
mentioned in his Ibis. The Manual seems to have added that Daedalus
instigated their crime.
Callimachus in his Origms gave a new account of Daedalus and
Icarus. Daedalus, he said, after shutting the Minotaur in the labyrinth,
desired permission to revisit Athens, declaring that he wished to spend
his remaining days there and to rear his child as an Athenian. Minos
refused to let him go. In order to hold the feathers in position, Daedalus
used not glue but wax. Callimachus appears to have noted that Icarus
took a childish delight in handling the wings and that Daedalus en-
deavored to provide for the boy's safety, as a mother bird tries to pro-
vide for her young. Father and son launched themselves into the air
from the top of a low hill. Since Daedalus wanted to revisit Athens, we
might suppose that he would have flown in a northwesterly direction,
towards the mainland of Greece. Callimachus remembered that Athens
was in subjection to Minos and that Daedalus would fear to go there at
once. He repeated the usual account of the flight towards Miletus and
named many of the islands along the course, noting their distinctive fea-
tures. Daedalus himself buried Icarus. Before going to Sicily, he vis-
ited Cumae on the Bay of Naples and there dedicated his wings to
Apollo. Vergil, alluding to this in his Aeneid, added that grief prevented
Daedalus from commemorating in sculpture the fate of his unhappy son.
Greek artists of the Alexandrian period showed interest in the tale
of Icarus. Some unknown sculptor adorned a sarcophagus with repre-
sentations of Daedalus preparing the wings and Icarus fondling them in
delight. Pompeiian frescoes portrayed the fall of the boy and the
father's search for his body. *
Horace in his Odes alluded several times to the flight of Daedalus
and Icarus. He regarded both of them as guilty of reckless daring.
Ovid took a more favorable view. He observed that Daedalus flew safely,
and in the Tristia he contrasted the wise modesty of the father, who
*The ancient Greek myth seems to have influenced two later folk tales. One of
them was a modern Greek story, which ran as follows. A certain Captain Thirteen
was thrown by enemies into a pit. Finding a dead bird, he put the wings on his arms,
fastening them with clay, and rose into the air. Rain dissolved the clay, and he fell
into the sea. The other tale was concerned with the German magician Wieland, who
vainly tried to escape by using a winged cloak.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
kept a middle height, with the unwise ambition of the son, who soared
high and fell -- an idea repeated by Seneca both in his Oedipus, and in
his Hercules on Mt. Oeta.
In the Art of Love Ovid retold the story, following the version of
Callimachus. When Minos refused to let Daedalus go, the artisan solilo-
quized to the effect that Minos controlled land and sea but not the air.
He prayed for the favor of Jupiter. Daedalus undertook to alter the
laws of nature. Ovid noted that he attached the feathers to the frames
not only by using wax at the base of the feathers but also by fastening
the middle of the feathers with twine. Ovid spoke of Icarus as playing
with the loose feathers and the soft wax. He showed Daedalus talking
to Icarus, at some length. After explaining the need of wings, he gave
the traditional warnings and also admonished him to follow his father
and not venture to steer his own course. Do not look for guidance, he
said, to the constellations of Orion or the Herdsman or the Bear. Such
admonition was out of place when the flight was to occur by day. Dae-
dalus gave Icarus preliminary training in the use of wings, as a mother
bird trains her fledgelings.
Still anxious, he began the fatal journey. As they passed overhead,
a fisherman saw them and dropped his rod in amazement. They con-
tinued safely over the islands of Naxos, Paros, and Delos. The island of
Samos appeared on the left of their course, three small islands were
visible to the right. They were almost in view of their goal. Then Icarus
disobeyed his father and mounted heavenward. The Manual had spoken
of the two wings as dropping off. Ovid thought rather that individual
feathers became loose and fluttered down, until the wings no longer sus-
tained the boy's weight. Briefly and graphically, Ovid indicated the
terror of Icarus as he discovered his plight. Calling the name of his
father, the boy plunged into the sea. Although Daedalus did not hear
the cry, he soon realized that Icarus was missing, and he wheeled about
in search of him. Vergil in a famous passage of the Georgics had shown
Orpheus calling three times the name of Eurydice. Ovid imagined that
Daedalus called three times the name of his son. Looking down, he saw
feathers tossing on the waves.
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid treated the same story, and, contrary
to his usual method, he repeated all the important circumstances. But
he tried in many ways to improve the account. He was anxious to
omit unnecessary detail, and in this he went too far. At the beginning
he made the situation obscure, for he said only that Daedalus wished to
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? ICARUS AND PERDIX
revisit Athens but was unable to sail, and afterwards he made less vivid
the plight of Icarus.
In the admonitory speech of Daedalus to his son, Ovid repeated
the same ideas but presented them in a more effective order. He im-
proved several other passages by adding further detail. He observed
that Daedalus attached the feathers of the wings so they tapered in a
curve from the base to the tip, and he compared them to reeds of shep-
herd pipes. He described more interestingly the boy's play with the
feathers, adding that it hindered the father. Ovid noted that, before
Daedalus put wings on Icarus, he himself made a brief trial flight.
Throughout the early part of the tale Ovid emphasized the idea of
approaching disaster, and in accord with this idea he altered the simile
of a mother bird. Daedalus feared for Icarus, he said, as a mother bird
fears for her young. This time Ovid indicated a widespread amazement
among the country folk. Fishers, shepherds, and plowmen marvelled at
the winged pair and thought them gods.
Since the narrative about Icarus did not include a transformation,
Ovid related it to another story. In the folklore of many peoples we find
tales which run as follows. The apprentice of a certain architect showed
remarkable ability and gave promise of excelling his master. The archi-
tect became jealous and treacherously put him to death. A tale of this
kind the Greeks told about Daedalus and made the occasion for his
leaving Athens. Daedalus, they said, had a sister named Perdix. She
made her son, Talos, an apprentice to his uncle. Talos, observing the row
of teeth in the jaw of a serpent, imitated the arrangement in a sheet of
iron and so invented the saw. Daedalus lured him to the roof of a build-
ing which stood on the edge of the Acropolis, and pushed him off. He
fell to the base of the cliff and the Athenians found his body and buried
it there. They brought Daedalus before the court of the Areopagus,
and, although he pretended that the boy fell by accident, they condemned
him to death. He escaped and took refuge in Crete. This account was
recorded in the Manual.
Sophocles in his Men of Camicus alluded to a different version. He
gave the name Perdix to the apprentice and said that he turned into a
bird of that name, the partridge. Callimachus in his Origins added
further circumstances. He noted, more plausibly, how the boy invented
the saw by imitating the spine of a fish. The boy also invented other
tools, he said, especially the compass, which we use for drawing curved
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
lines. The partridge, he added, still dreads falling from a high place. It
flies low and nests on the ground.
This account Ovid associated with the death of Icarus. In many
tales of Greek mythology, a human being who was transformed into some
kind of animal was supposed to have become the first animal of that
kind and the ancestor of all others. In a separate tale this rafsed the
question how a species could originate from a single individual. In a
succession of tales it also brought the danger of being inconsistent with
some previous event. Ovid usually avoided both difficulties by leaving
the reader in doubt whether the newly formed animal was the first of his
kind or merely another individual of an existing species. Callimachus
declared that Perdix was the first bird of his kind. Ovid incautiously
followed his example. We should imagine the newly created partridge
as living near Athens. Without regard for probability, Ovid declared
that he was on the distant island of Icaria. From a muddy furrow he
saw Daedalus burying the remains of his son, and he rejoiced at his
uncle's misfortune. Ovid described him as jubilantly beating his wings
and immediately afterwards as crowing. For a partridge this would not
be in character. Ovid may have been thinking of a pheasant.
Ovid then repeated the story as told by Callimachus, merely allud-
ing to the trial. Recalling the tale of Cycnus (Bk. 7), he said that, as
Perdix fell through the air, Athena transformed him into a bird. This
idea was not easily reconciled with the banishment of Daedalus to
Crete, but Ovid could assume that his Roman audience would not in-
quire too curiously. He added, not altogether happily, that Perdix
because of his quick wit was able to run and fly with extraordinary
rapidity.
Ovid was content with an obscure allusion to the death of Minos in
Sicily.
In later times the story of Icarus was known almost entirely from
Ovid and chiefly from the Metamorphoses. It attracted a number of
medieval and modern authors. The tale was recalled first by three poets
of Provence and then by the authors of the Flamenca and the Romance
of the Rose. Chaucer in the House of Fame spoke of the eagle as lifting
him higher than Icarus, who mounted until his wings dissolved and he
fell, much lamented, into the sea. According to Ariosto, the fleeing
Christians, like Icarus, longed vainly for wings, and incurred a similar
fate by drowning in the river Seine. Shakespeare in the Third Part of
Henry Sixth made a lengthy comparison of King Henry and his son
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? ICARUS AND PERDIX
to the unfortunate Daedalus and Icarus. Dante on the back of Geryon
felt even more terror than Icarus had felt when the wax melted and the
feathers dropped off. And Keats declared that Endymion, discovering
the Indian Princess beside him, felt consternation like that of Icarus
when the wax began to run.
Ancient poets had thought of the boy unfavorably, as rash to no
purpose. In the Malade Imdgmaire, Moliere followed their example. He
showed Pan warning the shepherds against endeavoring to compose
eulogies worthy of King Louis, for that would be to mount skyward on
waxen wings and fall into the depths of the sea. But modern poets usu-
ally were inclined to sympathize with Icarus, as one attempting a heroic
enterprise beyond mortal strength. In two famous love sonnets Luigi
Tansillo compared himself to the bold, immortal Icarus. In Shakes-
peare's Henry Sixth the elder Talbot, finding his son determined to
share his fate, replied,
Then follow thou thy desperate sire of Crete,
Thou Icarus. Thy life to me is sweet.
Goethe in a celebrated passage of Faust likened to Icarus the aspiring
Euphorion. Browning in The Ring and the Book showed Bottinius com-
paring his difficulty on the witness stand to that of Icarus in reaching
the sky.
The tale of Icarus appeared in paintings by Elsheimer, Vien,
Rubens, and Herbert Draper and in sculpture by Canova and Rodin.
Ovid's account of Perdix attracted much less attention.
But Dante,
recording the words of the great Celestial Eagle, echoed Ovid's phrase
about a preliminary beating of wings.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
Meleagee and Atalanta
After leaving Daedalus, Ovid turned to Theseus and the joy of the
Athenians at his conquest of the Minotaur. The Manual had recorded
that in the years which followed this victory Theseus took part in many
heroic ventures, most of them unrelated to one another. To these events
as a whole Ovid referred by noting how the hero's fame spread through
Greece and caused many states to enlist him in their times of need. Ovid
decided to recount only two adventures. One was the Calydonian Boar
Hunt, the other the battle of Theseus and Pirithous against the Cen-
taurs. He told first of the boar hunt, and he implied that it was the
earlier of the two events, for he mentioned as one of the hunters the hero
Caeneus, who perished in battle with the Centaurs (Bk. 12). He noted
that both Theseus and Pirithous took part in the hunt and that already
they had begun their famous friendship.
The original cause of this boar hunt was one appearing often in
mythology of savage peoples. Its essential idea is as follows. A certain
king held a festival and in the course of it honored many deities. But he
neglected to honor one of them, and this deity sought revenge. In Greek
lore one famous instance occurred when Peleus invited the gods to his
wedding but overlooked Eris, goddess of discord. Another famous in-
stance occurred when Oeneus of Calydon neglected Diana. In this case
the goddess avenged herself by sending a monster in the form of a boar.
Like the sea monster in the tale of Andromeda (Bk. 4), it ravaged the
country and killed many people but finally was destroyed. Like the
Teumessian Vixen (Bk. 7), it required a difficult hunt, in which many
heroes took part. At first all the hunters were thought of as living within
a short distance of Calydon. Later they were said to have gathered
from all parts of Greece. The hunt was described as occurring a gen-
eration before the time of the Trojan War. It was thought of as taking
place a little later than the voyage of the Argo and as enlisting many of
the heroes who shared in that celebrated enterprise.
The general idea of the Calydonian Boar Hunt grew out of actual
experience with wild swine of Europe and southern Asia. Since prehis-
toric times, these animals have been common in wooded regions and
often have been destructive to crops. The boars have been favorite game
for hunting. Sometimes the hunters approach on horseback but more
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? MELEAGER AND ATALANTA
often on foot, and this appears to have been the usual method of ancient
times. Since by daylight the wild boar hides in some dense thicket or
reedy swamp, the hunters ordinarily send ahead dogs or men beating
the brush, to drive him into open ground. Ovid observed that the Caly-
donian hunters also spread nets to intercept him. As the animal leaves
the thicket, the hunters endeavor to encircle and kill him. Usually the
boar tries to run away. He moves very swiftly, and his tough hide and
bristles make him difficult to injure. But if the hunters wound or corner
him, the boar often charges them savagely. He is a heavy animal, fre-
quently weighing more than three hundred pounds, and his snout is
armed with sharp tusks, which sometimes are a foot in length. Striking
a hunter with great force at the height of the thigh or the lower abdo-
men, the boar can inflict formidable wounds. The ordinary boar is a
destructive, dangerous beast, as the ancients noted in their famous myth
of Adonis (Bk. 10). But the creature sent by Diana was regarded as
also preternaturally large and aggressive.
The Iliad told the story as follows. Oeneus, ruler of Calydon in
Aetolia, made offerings to many gods in return for a good harvest. But
he made no offering to Diana, either forgetting her or thinking her con-
tribution to the harvest unimportant. To punish him, Diana sent a
boar with white tusks. This creature appeared when the fruit trees
were in blossom and wrought havoc among the orchards, overthrowing
even tall trees. It also killed many men. Meleager, son of Oeneus,
gathered a company of hunters. He included both the Aetolians, who
were his own countrymen, and the neighboring Curetes, who were coun-
trymen of his mother, Althaea. With their aid he killed the boar.
In most tales of this kind the hostile deity allowed his revenge to
end with the death of the monster. But Diana, still hostile, involved the
Aetolians and Curetes in a controversy over spoils, that is, over the
boar's head and skin. It resulted in war between the two peoples. At
first, Meleager, leading the Aetolians, drove the Curetes within their
walls. But in the fighting he killed his uncle, a brother of Althaea. The
queen so resented the loss of her brother that she cursed her son, calling
on Hades and Proserpina to end his life, and she was heard by the Fury
in Erebus. Meleager then refused to fight and remained at home with his
wife, Cleopatra. The Curetes prevailed. In alarm many leaders of the
Aetolians besought Meleager's aid, offering a generous reward. Melea-
ger's sisters, his father, and also his mother added their entreaties. Still
Meleager refused. The Curetes attacked Calydon, mounting its walls
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
and threatening the palace with fire. Then Cleopatra pleaded with
Meleager to save his people. Meleager saved them but got no reward.
This tale the hero Phoenix told in order to persuade Achilles that he
ought to accept the reward offered by Agamemnon and bring timely aid
to the Greeks.
Stesichorus told of Meleager in his poem The Boar Hunt, but his
account is lost.
The Iliad in recording the story had spoken as if Meleager were
an only son of King Oeneus. Elsewhere it noted that, before the out-
break of the Trojan War, Oeneus and his sons, including the fair
haired Meleager, were dead. Presumably these other sons were born
after the time of the Boar Hunt. But later authors thought otherwise
and often spoke of them as having some part in the adventure with the
boar. In the tale of Meleager the Iliad had spoken as if there existed
only a single Fury. Later authors thought of more than one. Aeschylus
imagined the Furies as numerous enough to form the entire chorus of
his tragedy called Eumenides. Euripides limited the number to three,
and afterwards this was the usual view. The Manual gave their names
as Tisiphone, Allecto, and Megaera. These three often entered into
Alexandrian versions of the Boar Hunt.
According to the Iliad, the Fury seems to have responded to
Althaea's curse and in some way to have caused the death of her son.
The Catalogues stated explicitly that Apollo killed Meleager with
arrows, as he fought for his country against the Curetes. It added that
one of Meleager's sisters was Deianira, who married Hercules. The
Manual, repeating the story of Meleager, agreed in most particulars
with the Iliad and the Catalogues. But it said that Meleager killed more
than one uncle, and it did not mention Apollo. This version of the tale
Ovid followed in his Epistle of Briseis to Achilles.
With the close of the sixth century B. C. the story took also a dif-
ferent form. Savage peoples often have thought it possible for a man's
soul to live permanently apart from his body and to inhabit some ani-
mal, plant, or inanimate object. While the residence of the soul is
intact, the man is immune to injury or death. But, if it were injured,
the man would suffer corresponding injury, and, if it were destroyed, he
would die*. In Australia the idea was common until recent years, and
in Rhodesia it still is current. It affected the ancient Greek tale of
? This belief was allied to the idea of a man's soul residing in his hair, which
occurred in the early Greek versions of Ovid's tale entitled King Minos and Scylla.
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? MELEAGER AND ATALANTA
Meleager. The hero's soul resided in a certain piece of fire wood, and,
while this wood remained safe, he was immune to injury.
In German and Scandinavian folklore we find occasionally that a
man's soul entered a lighted candle or some other object which was
burning. The fire had to be quenched in order to save his life. This idea
appeared in the Greek tale of Meleager. The hero's soul entered a
piece of wood which was burning in the fire. His mother put out the
flame and hid the brand in a safe place. Apparently no one else, not even
Meleager himself, was aware of its importance. Carefully guarding her
secret, Althaea allowed her son to grow up and win power and fame.
But, when she heard that Meleager had killed his uncle, she burned the
fatal brand. Meleager, fighting the Curetes under the walls of Pleuron,
died with the destruction of the wood. This tale Phrynichus introduced
in his tragedy called Women of Pleuron.
Bacchylides repeated the story, adding further circumstances.
Oeneus realized his mistake, he said, and vainly tried to appease Diana
by offering many goats and oxen. When the hunters encountered the
boar, the monster fought with them for six days and killed Meleager's
brothers, Ancaeus and Agelaus. During the subsequent war, Meleager
killed two uncles. Although he did this unwittingly in a confused melee,
Althaea made no allowance for extenuating circumstances. As Meleager
vanquished a certain Clymenus, he felt life ebbing away and wept at his
untimely death. Later authors altered several of these details. They
said nothing of an attempt to appease Diana. They indicated that
Meleager's brothers took no part in the hunt and that the conflict with
the monster was much briefer. But they spoke of the boar's killing
Ancaeus, a hunter from Arcadia.
Aeschylus in his Choephorae alluded to the burning of the fatal
brand, observing that Meleager's soul had entered it immediately after
his birth. Afterwards most authors accepted this idea, but the author
of the Manual spoke of the event as occurring, more plausibly, when
Meleager was seven days old. Sophocles told of the boar hunt in his
tragedy called Meleager, but his account is lost. Nicander gave a more
precise narrative of the quarrel over spoils. Meleager, he said, claimed
both head and skin. His uncles claimed the skin for the Curetes. In the
sequel Nicander combined some ideas from the Iliad with others from
Phrynichus. When Meleager killed his uncles, Althaea was content at
first with cursing him, and Meleager refused to fight. But when the
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
Curetes threatened Calydon, he attacked them again, and Althaea
burned the brand. All Meleager's brothers fell in battle.
Euripides in his tragedy Meleager brought in a new idea. The
prehistoric Greeks had worshipped a divine huntress not only under the
name of Diana but also under the name of Atalanta. In time they dis-
tinguished between the two and regarded Diana as a goddess and
Atalanta as a mortal. Like the nymph Callisto (Bk. 2), she was asso-
ciated with Diana's sacred animal, for she was reported to have been
nursed by a she bear, and, like Callisto, she grew up a virgin huntress
attending Diana. Atalanta was localized either in Arcadia or in Boeo-
tia. Most Greek authors thought of her as inhabiting the Arcadian
village of Tegea near Mt. Maenalus. Euripides imagined her as coming
from there to join the Calydonian hunt and as having an important part
in the fate of Meleager.
The hero, he said, was dissatisfied with Cleopatra. Falling in love
with Atalanta, he confided to his mother that he desired to marry her
and obtain fine children. Althaea opposed the plan and protested not
only to Meleager but also to Atalanta. The maiden assured Althaea
that she wished to remain a virgin huntress but added that her mode of
life should qualify one to bear fine children. Meleager's uncles learned of
his fondness for Atalanta, and they too opposed it. Before telling of the
hunt, Euripides included a brief list of the assembled heroes. Atalanta,
he said, was the first to wound the boar, and Meleager killed it.
Euripides gave a new account of the quarrel. The other hunters
had no objection to Meleager's taking the spoils, and they freely
awarded them to him. But they objected to his showing fondness for
Atalanta. When Meleager presented the spoils to her, his uncles took
them away. She appealed for redress to Meleager. Euripides gave a
new account of the death of the uncles. Meleager did not kill them un-
wittingly in a subsequent war but knowingly in the quarrel over spoils.
While he was returning to Calydon, Althaea learned their fate. She
debated with herself the contrary claims of her brothers and her son.
Deciding in favor of the brothers, she threw the brand in the fire. Too
late she repented and offered her dying son the compensation of honors
after death. Meleager declined them. Although Althaea longed to kill
herself, she lacked the courage to do it. Accius afterwards made an
adaptation of Euripides for the Roman stage. Of his work there re-
mains only a part of Althaea's soliloquy.
In the Phoenissae Euripides spoke of Atalanta as herself killing
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? MELEAGER AND ATALANTA
the boar with arrows, an idea not mentioned elsewhere.
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
Icarus and Perbix
Ovid then told how Daedalus left Crete.
According to tradition, Minos was offended with the artificer be-
cause he aided Theseus and Ariadne, and he imprisoned in the labyrinth
both Daedalus and his son Icarus. Herodotus had spoken of the Egyp-
tian labyrinth as being entirely covered with a roof. Evidently the
Greeks thought of the Cretan labyrinth as having at least one court
open to the sky. Daedalus planned to escape by flying through the air.
Collecting a large number of feathers, he attached them to light frames
and made them into two pairs of wings. One pair he fastened to his
arms with glue, the other he fastened to the arms of his son. A bird,
which has the advantage of a light body and powerful muscles, is able to
fly by beating his wings. Many peoples have supposed erroneously that
a human being can do the same. Daedalus planned to rise in this manner
and escape from Crete.
Before leaving the ground he cautioned Icarus to avoid flying low,
because damp of the sea might weigh down his feathers, and to avoid
flying high, because the sun would melt the glue. Daedalus and Icarus
then departed in a northeasterly direction towards Miletus. No reason
was given for their taking this particular course. It was assumed that
Icarus must have been associated with the region of Miletus, because
that part of the sea was called Icarian and because one of its islands
was called Icaria. Daedalus flew safely at a middle height. Icarus, de-
lighted with the new experience, mounted higher and higher. The sun
melted the glue, his wings dropped off, and he perished in the sea which
bears his name. Turning westwards, Daedalus arrived at Camicus in
Sicily and took refuge with King Cocalus. Minos pursued him thither
and demanded possession of him. Cocalus promised to give him up and
meanwhile entertained Minos at his court. But the daughters of Cocalus
treacherously put Minos to death.
By the middle of the fifth century B. C. , this tale had become well
known. Herodotus alluded to the pursuit of Daedalus and the violent
death of Minos in Sicily. Sophocles treated the theme in his Men of
Camicus, which now is lost. The Manual repeated the whole story, asso-
ciating Icarus definitely with the island of Icaria. According to the
Manual, Hercules found his body cast up on the shore and buried it
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? ICARUS AND PERDIX
there. The Manual alluded also to the circumstances under which Minos
was killed. He was taking one of those primitive baths which are obtained
by standing on the ground floor of a building and having a servant pour
water through an opening in the floor above. The daughters of Cocalus
arranged to have this water boiling hot, an idea which Ovid afterwards
mentioned in his Ibis. The Manual seems to have added that Daedalus
instigated their crime.
Callimachus in his Origms gave a new account of Daedalus and
Icarus. Daedalus, he said, after shutting the Minotaur in the labyrinth,
desired permission to revisit Athens, declaring that he wished to spend
his remaining days there and to rear his child as an Athenian. Minos
refused to let him go. In order to hold the feathers in position, Daedalus
used not glue but wax. Callimachus appears to have noted that Icarus
took a childish delight in handling the wings and that Daedalus en-
deavored to provide for the boy's safety, as a mother bird tries to pro-
vide for her young. Father and son launched themselves into the air
from the top of a low hill. Since Daedalus wanted to revisit Athens, we
might suppose that he would have flown in a northwesterly direction,
towards the mainland of Greece. Callimachus remembered that Athens
was in subjection to Minos and that Daedalus would fear to go there at
once. He repeated the usual account of the flight towards Miletus and
named many of the islands along the course, noting their distinctive fea-
tures. Daedalus himself buried Icarus. Before going to Sicily, he vis-
ited Cumae on the Bay of Naples and there dedicated his wings to
Apollo. Vergil, alluding to this in his Aeneid, added that grief prevented
Daedalus from commemorating in sculpture the fate of his unhappy son.
Greek artists of the Alexandrian period showed interest in the tale
of Icarus. Some unknown sculptor adorned a sarcophagus with repre-
sentations of Daedalus preparing the wings and Icarus fondling them in
delight. Pompeiian frescoes portrayed the fall of the boy and the
father's search for his body. *
Horace in his Odes alluded several times to the flight of Daedalus
and Icarus. He regarded both of them as guilty of reckless daring.
Ovid took a more favorable view. He observed that Daedalus flew safely,
and in the Tristia he contrasted the wise modesty of the father, who
*The ancient Greek myth seems to have influenced two later folk tales. One of
them was a modern Greek story, which ran as follows. A certain Captain Thirteen
was thrown by enemies into a pit. Finding a dead bird, he put the wings on his arms,
fastening them with clay, and rose into the air. Rain dissolved the clay, and he fell
into the sea. The other tale was concerned with the German magician Wieland, who
vainly tried to escape by using a winged cloak.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
kept a middle height, with the unwise ambition of the son, who soared
high and fell -- an idea repeated by Seneca both in his Oedipus, and in
his Hercules on Mt. Oeta.
In the Art of Love Ovid retold the story, following the version of
Callimachus. When Minos refused to let Daedalus go, the artisan solilo-
quized to the effect that Minos controlled land and sea but not the air.
He prayed for the favor of Jupiter. Daedalus undertook to alter the
laws of nature. Ovid noted that he attached the feathers to the frames
not only by using wax at the base of the feathers but also by fastening
the middle of the feathers with twine. Ovid spoke of Icarus as playing
with the loose feathers and the soft wax. He showed Daedalus talking
to Icarus, at some length. After explaining the need of wings, he gave
the traditional warnings and also admonished him to follow his father
and not venture to steer his own course. Do not look for guidance, he
said, to the constellations of Orion or the Herdsman or the Bear. Such
admonition was out of place when the flight was to occur by day. Dae-
dalus gave Icarus preliminary training in the use of wings, as a mother
bird trains her fledgelings.
Still anxious, he began the fatal journey. As they passed overhead,
a fisherman saw them and dropped his rod in amazement. They con-
tinued safely over the islands of Naxos, Paros, and Delos. The island of
Samos appeared on the left of their course, three small islands were
visible to the right. They were almost in view of their goal. Then Icarus
disobeyed his father and mounted heavenward. The Manual had spoken
of the two wings as dropping off. Ovid thought rather that individual
feathers became loose and fluttered down, until the wings no longer sus-
tained the boy's weight. Briefly and graphically, Ovid indicated the
terror of Icarus as he discovered his plight. Calling the name of his
father, the boy plunged into the sea. Although Daedalus did not hear
the cry, he soon realized that Icarus was missing, and he wheeled about
in search of him. Vergil in a famous passage of the Georgics had shown
Orpheus calling three times the name of Eurydice. Ovid imagined that
Daedalus called three times the name of his son. Looking down, he saw
feathers tossing on the waves.
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid treated the same story, and, contrary
to his usual method, he repeated all the important circumstances. But
he tried in many ways to improve the account. He was anxious to
omit unnecessary detail, and in this he went too far. At the beginning
he made the situation obscure, for he said only that Daedalus wished to
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? ICARUS AND PERDIX
revisit Athens but was unable to sail, and afterwards he made less vivid
the plight of Icarus.
In the admonitory speech of Daedalus to his son, Ovid repeated
the same ideas but presented them in a more effective order. He im-
proved several other passages by adding further detail. He observed
that Daedalus attached the feathers of the wings so they tapered in a
curve from the base to the tip, and he compared them to reeds of shep-
herd pipes. He described more interestingly the boy's play with the
feathers, adding that it hindered the father. Ovid noted that, before
Daedalus put wings on Icarus, he himself made a brief trial flight.
Throughout the early part of the tale Ovid emphasized the idea of
approaching disaster, and in accord with this idea he altered the simile
of a mother bird. Daedalus feared for Icarus, he said, as a mother bird
fears for her young. This time Ovid indicated a widespread amazement
among the country folk. Fishers, shepherds, and plowmen marvelled at
the winged pair and thought them gods.
Since the narrative about Icarus did not include a transformation,
Ovid related it to another story. In the folklore of many peoples we find
tales which run as follows. The apprentice of a certain architect showed
remarkable ability and gave promise of excelling his master. The archi-
tect became jealous and treacherously put him to death. A tale of this
kind the Greeks told about Daedalus and made the occasion for his
leaving Athens. Daedalus, they said, had a sister named Perdix. She
made her son, Talos, an apprentice to his uncle. Talos, observing the row
of teeth in the jaw of a serpent, imitated the arrangement in a sheet of
iron and so invented the saw. Daedalus lured him to the roof of a build-
ing which stood on the edge of the Acropolis, and pushed him off. He
fell to the base of the cliff and the Athenians found his body and buried
it there. They brought Daedalus before the court of the Areopagus,
and, although he pretended that the boy fell by accident, they condemned
him to death. He escaped and took refuge in Crete. This account was
recorded in the Manual.
Sophocles in his Men of Camicus alluded to a different version. He
gave the name Perdix to the apprentice and said that he turned into a
bird of that name, the partridge. Callimachus in his Origins added
further circumstances. He noted, more plausibly, how the boy invented
the saw by imitating the spine of a fish. The boy also invented other
tools, he said, especially the compass, which we use for drawing curved
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
lines. The partridge, he added, still dreads falling from a high place. It
flies low and nests on the ground.
This account Ovid associated with the death of Icarus. In many
tales of Greek mythology, a human being who was transformed into some
kind of animal was supposed to have become the first animal of that
kind and the ancestor of all others. In a separate tale this rafsed the
question how a species could originate from a single individual. In a
succession of tales it also brought the danger of being inconsistent with
some previous event. Ovid usually avoided both difficulties by leaving
the reader in doubt whether the newly formed animal was the first of his
kind or merely another individual of an existing species. Callimachus
declared that Perdix was the first bird of his kind. Ovid incautiously
followed his example. We should imagine the newly created partridge
as living near Athens. Without regard for probability, Ovid declared
that he was on the distant island of Icaria. From a muddy furrow he
saw Daedalus burying the remains of his son, and he rejoiced at his
uncle's misfortune. Ovid described him as jubilantly beating his wings
and immediately afterwards as crowing. For a partridge this would not
be in character. Ovid may have been thinking of a pheasant.
Ovid then repeated the story as told by Callimachus, merely allud-
ing to the trial. Recalling the tale of Cycnus (Bk. 7), he said that, as
Perdix fell through the air, Athena transformed him into a bird. This
idea was not easily reconciled with the banishment of Daedalus to
Crete, but Ovid could assume that his Roman audience would not in-
quire too curiously. He added, not altogether happily, that Perdix
because of his quick wit was able to run and fly with extraordinary
rapidity.
Ovid was content with an obscure allusion to the death of Minos in
Sicily.
In later times the story of Icarus was known almost entirely from
Ovid and chiefly from the Metamorphoses. It attracted a number of
medieval and modern authors. The tale was recalled first by three poets
of Provence and then by the authors of the Flamenca and the Romance
of the Rose. Chaucer in the House of Fame spoke of the eagle as lifting
him higher than Icarus, who mounted until his wings dissolved and he
fell, much lamented, into the sea. According to Ariosto, the fleeing
Christians, like Icarus, longed vainly for wings, and incurred a similar
fate by drowning in the river Seine. Shakespeare in the Third Part of
Henry Sixth made a lengthy comparison of King Henry and his son
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? ICARUS AND PERDIX
to the unfortunate Daedalus and Icarus. Dante on the back of Geryon
felt even more terror than Icarus had felt when the wax melted and the
feathers dropped off. And Keats declared that Endymion, discovering
the Indian Princess beside him, felt consternation like that of Icarus
when the wax began to run.
Ancient poets had thought of the boy unfavorably, as rash to no
purpose. In the Malade Imdgmaire, Moliere followed their example. He
showed Pan warning the shepherds against endeavoring to compose
eulogies worthy of King Louis, for that would be to mount skyward on
waxen wings and fall into the depths of the sea. But modern poets usu-
ally were inclined to sympathize with Icarus, as one attempting a heroic
enterprise beyond mortal strength. In two famous love sonnets Luigi
Tansillo compared himself to the bold, immortal Icarus. In Shakes-
peare's Henry Sixth the elder Talbot, finding his son determined to
share his fate, replied,
Then follow thou thy desperate sire of Crete,
Thou Icarus. Thy life to me is sweet.
Goethe in a celebrated passage of Faust likened to Icarus the aspiring
Euphorion. Browning in The Ring and the Book showed Bottinius com-
paring his difficulty on the witness stand to that of Icarus in reaching
the sky.
The tale of Icarus appeared in paintings by Elsheimer, Vien,
Rubens, and Herbert Draper and in sculpture by Canova and Rodin.
Ovid's account of Perdix attracted much less attention.
But Dante,
recording the words of the great Celestial Eagle, echoed Ovid's phrase
about a preliminary beating of wings.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
Meleagee and Atalanta
After leaving Daedalus, Ovid turned to Theseus and the joy of the
Athenians at his conquest of the Minotaur. The Manual had recorded
that in the years which followed this victory Theseus took part in many
heroic ventures, most of them unrelated to one another. To these events
as a whole Ovid referred by noting how the hero's fame spread through
Greece and caused many states to enlist him in their times of need. Ovid
decided to recount only two adventures. One was the Calydonian Boar
Hunt, the other the battle of Theseus and Pirithous against the Cen-
taurs. He told first of the boar hunt, and he implied that it was the
earlier of the two events, for he mentioned as one of the hunters the hero
Caeneus, who perished in battle with the Centaurs (Bk. 12). He noted
that both Theseus and Pirithous took part in the hunt and that already
they had begun their famous friendship.
The original cause of this boar hunt was one appearing often in
mythology of savage peoples. Its essential idea is as follows. A certain
king held a festival and in the course of it honored many deities. But he
neglected to honor one of them, and this deity sought revenge. In Greek
lore one famous instance occurred when Peleus invited the gods to his
wedding but overlooked Eris, goddess of discord. Another famous in-
stance occurred when Oeneus of Calydon neglected Diana. In this case
the goddess avenged herself by sending a monster in the form of a boar.
Like the sea monster in the tale of Andromeda (Bk. 4), it ravaged the
country and killed many people but finally was destroyed. Like the
Teumessian Vixen (Bk. 7), it required a difficult hunt, in which many
heroes took part. At first all the hunters were thought of as living within
a short distance of Calydon. Later they were said to have gathered
from all parts of Greece. The hunt was described as occurring a gen-
eration before the time of the Trojan War. It was thought of as taking
place a little later than the voyage of the Argo and as enlisting many of
the heroes who shared in that celebrated enterprise.
The general idea of the Calydonian Boar Hunt grew out of actual
experience with wild swine of Europe and southern Asia. Since prehis-
toric times, these animals have been common in wooded regions and
often have been destructive to crops. The boars have been favorite game
for hunting. Sometimes the hunters approach on horseback but more
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? MELEAGER AND ATALANTA
often on foot, and this appears to have been the usual method of ancient
times. Since by daylight the wild boar hides in some dense thicket or
reedy swamp, the hunters ordinarily send ahead dogs or men beating
the brush, to drive him into open ground. Ovid observed that the Caly-
donian hunters also spread nets to intercept him. As the animal leaves
the thicket, the hunters endeavor to encircle and kill him. Usually the
boar tries to run away. He moves very swiftly, and his tough hide and
bristles make him difficult to injure. But if the hunters wound or corner
him, the boar often charges them savagely. He is a heavy animal, fre-
quently weighing more than three hundred pounds, and his snout is
armed with sharp tusks, which sometimes are a foot in length. Striking
a hunter with great force at the height of the thigh or the lower abdo-
men, the boar can inflict formidable wounds. The ordinary boar is a
destructive, dangerous beast, as the ancients noted in their famous myth
of Adonis (Bk. 10). But the creature sent by Diana was regarded as
also preternaturally large and aggressive.
The Iliad told the story as follows. Oeneus, ruler of Calydon in
Aetolia, made offerings to many gods in return for a good harvest. But
he made no offering to Diana, either forgetting her or thinking her con-
tribution to the harvest unimportant. To punish him, Diana sent a
boar with white tusks. This creature appeared when the fruit trees
were in blossom and wrought havoc among the orchards, overthrowing
even tall trees. It also killed many men. Meleager, son of Oeneus,
gathered a company of hunters. He included both the Aetolians, who
were his own countrymen, and the neighboring Curetes, who were coun-
trymen of his mother, Althaea. With their aid he killed the boar.
In most tales of this kind the hostile deity allowed his revenge to
end with the death of the monster. But Diana, still hostile, involved the
Aetolians and Curetes in a controversy over spoils, that is, over the
boar's head and skin. It resulted in war between the two peoples. At
first, Meleager, leading the Aetolians, drove the Curetes within their
walls. But in the fighting he killed his uncle, a brother of Althaea. The
queen so resented the loss of her brother that she cursed her son, calling
on Hades and Proserpina to end his life, and she was heard by the Fury
in Erebus. Meleager then refused to fight and remained at home with his
wife, Cleopatra. The Curetes prevailed. In alarm many leaders of the
Aetolians besought Meleager's aid, offering a generous reward. Melea-
ger's sisters, his father, and also his mother added their entreaties. Still
Meleager refused. The Curetes attacked Calydon, mounting its walls
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
and threatening the palace with fire. Then Cleopatra pleaded with
Meleager to save his people. Meleager saved them but got no reward.
This tale the hero Phoenix told in order to persuade Achilles that he
ought to accept the reward offered by Agamemnon and bring timely aid
to the Greeks.
Stesichorus told of Meleager in his poem The Boar Hunt, but his
account is lost.
The Iliad in recording the story had spoken as if Meleager were
an only son of King Oeneus. Elsewhere it noted that, before the out-
break of the Trojan War, Oeneus and his sons, including the fair
haired Meleager, were dead. Presumably these other sons were born
after the time of the Boar Hunt. But later authors thought otherwise
and often spoke of them as having some part in the adventure with the
boar. In the tale of Meleager the Iliad had spoken as if there existed
only a single Fury. Later authors thought of more than one. Aeschylus
imagined the Furies as numerous enough to form the entire chorus of
his tragedy called Eumenides. Euripides limited the number to three,
and afterwards this was the usual view. The Manual gave their names
as Tisiphone, Allecto, and Megaera. These three often entered into
Alexandrian versions of the Boar Hunt.
According to the Iliad, the Fury seems to have responded to
Althaea's curse and in some way to have caused the death of her son.
The Catalogues stated explicitly that Apollo killed Meleager with
arrows, as he fought for his country against the Curetes. It added that
one of Meleager's sisters was Deianira, who married Hercules. The
Manual, repeating the story of Meleager, agreed in most particulars
with the Iliad and the Catalogues. But it said that Meleager killed more
than one uncle, and it did not mention Apollo. This version of the tale
Ovid followed in his Epistle of Briseis to Achilles.
With the close of the sixth century B. C. the story took also a dif-
ferent form. Savage peoples often have thought it possible for a man's
soul to live permanently apart from his body and to inhabit some ani-
mal, plant, or inanimate object. While the residence of the soul is
intact, the man is immune to injury or death. But, if it were injured,
the man would suffer corresponding injury, and, if it were destroyed, he
would die*. In Australia the idea was common until recent years, and
in Rhodesia it still is current. It affected the ancient Greek tale of
? This belief was allied to the idea of a man's soul residing in his hair, which
occurred in the early Greek versions of Ovid's tale entitled King Minos and Scylla.
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? MELEAGER AND ATALANTA
Meleager. The hero's soul resided in a certain piece of fire wood, and,
while this wood remained safe, he was immune to injury.
In German and Scandinavian folklore we find occasionally that a
man's soul entered a lighted candle or some other object which was
burning. The fire had to be quenched in order to save his life. This idea
appeared in the Greek tale of Meleager. The hero's soul entered a
piece of wood which was burning in the fire. His mother put out the
flame and hid the brand in a safe place. Apparently no one else, not even
Meleager himself, was aware of its importance. Carefully guarding her
secret, Althaea allowed her son to grow up and win power and fame.
But, when she heard that Meleager had killed his uncle, she burned the
fatal brand. Meleager, fighting the Curetes under the walls of Pleuron,
died with the destruction of the wood. This tale Phrynichus introduced
in his tragedy called Women of Pleuron.
Bacchylides repeated the story, adding further circumstances.
Oeneus realized his mistake, he said, and vainly tried to appease Diana
by offering many goats and oxen. When the hunters encountered the
boar, the monster fought with them for six days and killed Meleager's
brothers, Ancaeus and Agelaus. During the subsequent war, Meleager
killed two uncles. Although he did this unwittingly in a confused melee,
Althaea made no allowance for extenuating circumstances. As Meleager
vanquished a certain Clymenus, he felt life ebbing away and wept at his
untimely death. Later authors altered several of these details. They
said nothing of an attempt to appease Diana. They indicated that
Meleager's brothers took no part in the hunt and that the conflict with
the monster was much briefer. But they spoke of the boar's killing
Ancaeus, a hunter from Arcadia.
Aeschylus in his Choephorae alluded to the burning of the fatal
brand, observing that Meleager's soul had entered it immediately after
his birth. Afterwards most authors accepted this idea, but the author
of the Manual spoke of the event as occurring, more plausibly, when
Meleager was seven days old. Sophocles told of the boar hunt in his
tragedy called Meleager, but his account is lost. Nicander gave a more
precise narrative of the quarrel over spoils. Meleager, he said, claimed
both head and skin. His uncles claimed the skin for the Curetes. In the
sequel Nicander combined some ideas from the Iliad with others from
Phrynichus. When Meleager killed his uncles, Althaea was content at
first with cursing him, and Meleager refused to fight. But when the
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
Curetes threatened Calydon, he attacked them again, and Althaea
burned the brand. All Meleager's brothers fell in battle.
Euripides in his tragedy Meleager brought in a new idea. The
prehistoric Greeks had worshipped a divine huntress not only under the
name of Diana but also under the name of Atalanta. In time they dis-
tinguished between the two and regarded Diana as a goddess and
Atalanta as a mortal. Like the nymph Callisto (Bk. 2), she was asso-
ciated with Diana's sacred animal, for she was reported to have been
nursed by a she bear, and, like Callisto, she grew up a virgin huntress
attending Diana. Atalanta was localized either in Arcadia or in Boeo-
tia. Most Greek authors thought of her as inhabiting the Arcadian
village of Tegea near Mt. Maenalus. Euripides imagined her as coming
from there to join the Calydonian hunt and as having an important part
in the fate of Meleager.
The hero, he said, was dissatisfied with Cleopatra. Falling in love
with Atalanta, he confided to his mother that he desired to marry her
and obtain fine children. Althaea opposed the plan and protested not
only to Meleager but also to Atalanta. The maiden assured Althaea
that she wished to remain a virgin huntress but added that her mode of
life should qualify one to bear fine children. Meleager's uncles learned of
his fondness for Atalanta, and they too opposed it. Before telling of the
hunt, Euripides included a brief list of the assembled heroes. Atalanta,
he said, was the first to wound the boar, and Meleager killed it.
Euripides gave a new account of the quarrel. The other hunters
had no objection to Meleager's taking the spoils, and they freely
awarded them to him. But they objected to his showing fondness for
Atalanta. When Meleager presented the spoils to her, his uncles took
them away. She appealed for redress to Meleager. Euripides gave a
new account of the death of the uncles. Meleager did not kill them un-
wittingly in a subsequent war but knowingly in the quarrel over spoils.
While he was returning to Calydon, Althaea learned their fate. She
debated with herself the contrary claims of her brothers and her son.
Deciding in favor of the brothers, she threw the brand in the fire. Too
late she repented and offered her dying son the compensation of honors
after death. Meleager declined them. Although Althaea longed to kill
herself, she lacked the courage to do it. Accius afterwards made an
adaptation of Euripides for the Roman stage. Of his work there re-
mains only a part of Althaea's soliloquy.
In the Phoenissae Euripides spoke of Atalanta as herself killing
188
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? MELEAGER AND ATALANTA
the boar with arrows, an idea not mentioned elsewhere.
