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Ovid, having told how Thefeus had freed Athens from the tribute of children, which was imposed on them by Minos king of Creta, by killing the Minotaur, bere makes a digreffion to the ftory of Meleager and Atalanta, which is one of the most inartificial connections in all the Metamorphofes: for he only fays, that Thefeus obtained juch bonour from that combat, that ail Greece had recourse to bim in their neceffities; and, amongst others, Calydon, though the hero of that country, prince Meleager, was then living.

F

Rom him, the Caledonians fought relief;
Tho' valiant Meleagrus was their chief.
The cause, a boar, who ravag'd far and near;
Of Cynthia's wrath, th' avenging minister.
For Oeneus with autumnal plenty blefs'd,
By gifts to heav'n his gratitude exprefs'd;
Call'd fheafs, to Ceres; to Lyæus, wine;
To Pan, and Pales, offer'd fheep and kine;
And fat of olives, to Minerva's shrine.
Beginning from the rural Gods, his hand
Was lib'ral to the powers of high command:
Each Deity in ev'ry kind was blefs'd,

Till at Diana's fane th' invidious honour ceas'd.

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Wrath

Wrath touches ev'n the Gods; the queen of night
Fir'd with difdain, and jealous of her right,
Unhonour'd tho' I am, at least, said she,
Not unreveng'd that impious act shall be.
Swift as the word, fhe fped the boar away,
With charge on those devoted fields to prey.
No larger bulls the Ægyptian pastures feed,
And none fo large Sicilian meadows breed:
His eye-balls glare with fire, fuffus'd with blood;
His neck shoots up a thick fet thorny wood;
His bristled back a trench impal'd appears,
And ftands erected, like a field of spears.
Froth fills his chaps, he fends a grunting found,
And part he churns, and part befoams the ground.
For tusks with Indian elephants he ftrove,

And Jove's own thunder from his mouth he drove.
He burns the leaves; the fcorching blaft invades
The tender corn, and fhrivels up the blades:
Or fuff'ring not their yellow beards to rear,
He tramples down the fpikes, and intercepts the year
In vain the barns expect their promis'd load,
Nor barns at home, nor ricks are heap'd abroad:
In vain the hinds the threshing-floor prepare,
And exercise their fails in empty air.

With olives ever green the ground is ftrow'd,
And grapes ungather'd fhed their gen'rous blood.
Amid the fold he rages, nor the sheep

Their fhepherds, nor the grooms their bulls can keep
From fields to walls the frighted rabble run,
Nor think themselves fecure within the town:
Till Meleagrus, and his chofen crew,
Contemn the danger, and the praise pursue.
Fair Leda's twins, (in time to ftars decreed)
One fought on foot, one curb'd the fiery steed;
Then iffued forth fam'd Jason after thefe,
Who mann'd the foremost ship that fail'd the feas;

Then

Then Thefeus join'd with bold Pirithous came:
A fingle concord in a double name:
The Theftian fons, Idas who fwiftly ran,
And Ceneus, once a woman, now a man.
Lynceus, with eagle's eyes, and lion's heart;
Leucippus, with his never-erring dart;
Acaftus, Phileus, Phænix, Telamon,
Echion, Lelex, and Eurytion,

Achilles' father, and great Phocus' fon;

Dryas the fierce, and Hippafus the strong;

With twice old lolas, and Neftor then but young.
Laertes active, and Ancæus bold;

Mopfus the fage, who future things foretold;
And t'other feer yet by his wife unfold.

A thousand others of immortal fame;

Among the reft fair Atalanta came,,

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Grace of the woods: a diamond buckle bound
Her veft behind, that elfe had flow'd upon the ground,
And fhew'd her bufkin'd legs; her head was bare,
But for her native ornament of hair;

Which in a fimple knot was ty'd above,
Sweet negligence, unheeded bait of love!
Her founding quiver on her shoulder ty'd,
One hand a dart, and one a bow fupply'd.
Such was her face, as in a nymph display'd
A fair fierce boy, or in a boy betray'd
The blushing beauties of a modeft maid.
The Caledonian chief at once the dame
Beheld, at once his heart receiv'd the flame,
With heav'ns averfe. O happy youth, he cry'd;
For whom thy fates referve fo fair a bride!
He figh'd, and had no leisure more to fay;
His honour call'd his
eyes another way,
And force him to purfue the now neglected prey.
There ftood a foreft on the mountain's brow,
Which over-look'd the fhaded plains below..

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No

No founding ax prefum'd those trees to bite;
Coeval with the world, a venerable fight.
The heroes there arriv'd, some spread around
The toils, fome fearch the footsteps on the ground,
Some from the chains the faithful dogs unbound.
Of action eager, and intent on thought,
The chiefs their honourable danger fought:
A valley stood below; the common drain
Of waters from above, and falling rain:
The bottom was a moist and marshy ground,
Whofe edges were with bending ofiers crown'd;
The knotty bulrush next in order stood,
And all within of reeds a trembling wood.

From hence the boar was rous'd, and sprung amain;
Like lightning fudden on the warrior-train;
Beats down the trees before him, fhakes the ground,
The foreft ecchoes to the crackling found;

Shout the fierce youth, and clamours ring around.
All flood with their protended spears prepar'd,
With broad fteel heads the brandifh'd weapons glar'd.
The beast impetuous with his tusks afide

Deals glancing wounds; the fearful dogs divide:
All spend their mouth aloft, but none abide.
Echion threw the first, but miss'd his mark,
And ftuck his boar-fpear on a maple's bark.
Then Jafon; and his javelin feem'd to take,

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But fail'd with over-force, and whizz'd above his back.
Mopfus was next; but ere he threw, addrefs'd
To Phoebus thus: O patron, help thy priest;
If I adore, and ever have ador'd

Thy pow'r divine, thy prefent aid afford;
That I may reach the beaft. The God allow'd
His pray'r, and, fmiling, gave him what he could:
He reach'd the favage, but no blood he drew,
Dian unarm'd the javelin as it flew.

This chaf'd the boar, his noftrils flames expire,
And his red eye-balls roll with living fire.

Whirl'd from a fling, or from an engine thrown,
Amidst the foes, fo flies a mighty stone,
As flew the beaft: the left wing put to flight,
The chiefs o'erborn, he rushes on the right.
Empalamos and Pelagon he laid

In duft, and next to death, but for their fellows aid.
Onefimus far'd worfe, prepar'd to fly;

The fatal fang drove deep within his thigh,

And cut the nerves; the nerves no more fuftain
The bulk; the bulk unprop'd falls headlong on the plain.
Neftor had fail'd the fall of Troy to fee,

But leaning on his lance, he vaulted on a tree;
Then gathering up his feet, look'd down with fear,
And thought his monftrous foe was ftill too near.
Against a ftump his tusk the monster grinds,
And in the fharpen'd edge new vigour finds;
Then, trufting to his arms, young Othrys found,
And ranch'd his hips with one continu'd wound,
Now Leda's twins, the future ftars, appear;
White were their habits, white their horses were;
Confpicuous both, and both in act to throw,
Their trembling lances brandish'd at the foe :
Nor had they mifs'd; but he to thickets fled,
Conceal'd from aiming fpears, not pervious to the steed.
But Telamon rush'd in, and happ'd to meet

A rifing root, that held his fasten'd feet;

So down he fell, whom, fprawling on the ground,
His brother from the wooden gyves unbound.
Mean time the virgin-huntress was not flow
T'expel the shaft from her contracted bow:
Beneath his ear the faftened arrow ftood,
And from the wound appear'd the trickling blood.

She blush'd for joy: But Meleagrus rais'd

His voice with loud applaufe, and the fair archer prais'd He was the first to fee, and first to fhow

His friends the marks of the fuccefsful blow.

Ner

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