wherefore his mother plucked it forth and kept it by her. And the
child being a man grown sailed with Jason after the fleece of gold, and
won himself great praise of all men living; and when the tribes of the
north and west made war upon Aetolia, he fought against their army and
scattered it. But Artemis, having at the first stirred up these tribes
to war against Oeneus king of Calydon, because he had offered sacrifice
to all the gods saving her alone, but her he had forgotten to honour,
was yet more wroth because of the destruction of this army, and sent
upon the land of Calydon a wild boar which slew many and wasted all
their increase, but him could none slay, and many went against him and
perished. Then were all the chief men of Greece gathered together, and
among them Atalanta daughter of Iasius the Arcadian, a virgin, for
whose sake Artemis let slay the boar, seeing she favoured the maiden
greatly; and Meleager having despatched it gave the spoil thereof to
Atalanta, as one beyond measure enamoured of her; but the brethren of
Althaea his mother, Toxeus and Plexippus, with such others as misliked
that she only should bear off the praise whereas many had borne the
labour, laid wait for her to take away her spoil; but Meleager fought
against them and slew them: whom when Althaea their sister beheld and
knew to be slain of her son, she waxed for wrath and sorrow like as one
mad, and taking the brand whereby the measure of her son's life was
meted to him, she cast it upon a fire; and with the wasting thereof his
life likewise wasted away, that being brought back to his father's
house he died in a brief space, and his mother also endured not long
after for very sorrow; and this was his end, and the end of that
hunting.