From him the Caledonians sought relief; Though valiant Meleagrus was their chief. The cause, a boar, who ravaged far and near; Of Cynthia's wrath, the avenging minister. For Oenius with autumnal plenty blessed, By gifts to heaven his gratitude expressed; Culled sheafs, to Ceres; to Lyæus, wine; } To Pan and Pales, offered sheep and kine; } And fat of olives to Minerva's shrine. } Beginning from the rural gods, his hand Was liberal to the powers of high command; Each deity in every kind was blessed, Till at Diana's fane the invidious honour ceased. Wrath touches even the gods; the Queen of Night, Fired with disdain, and jealous of her right, Unhonoured though I am, at least, said she, Not unrevenged that impious act shall be. Swift as the word, she sped the boar away, With charge on those devoted fields to prey. No larger bulls the Egyptian pastures feed, And none so large Sicilian meadows breed: His eye-balls glare with fire, suffused with blood; His neck shoots up a thick-set thorny wood; His bristled back a trench impaled appears, And stands erected, like a field of spears; Froth fills his chaps, he sends a grunting sound, And part he churns, and part befoams the ground; For tusks with Indian elephants he strove, And Jove's own thunder from his mouth he drove. He burns the leaves; the scorching blast invades The tender corn, and shrivels up the blades; Or, suffering not their yellow beards to rear, He tramples down the spikes, and intercepts the year. In vain the barns expect their promised load, Nor barns at home, nor ricks are heaped abroad; In vain the hinds the threshing-floor prepare, And exercise their flails in empty air. With olives ever green the ground is strowed, And grapes ungathered shed their generous blood. Amid the fold he rages, nor the sheep Their shepherds, nor the grooms their bulls, can keep. From fields to walls the frighted rabble run, Nor think themselves secure within the town; Till Melegarus, and his chosen crew, Contemn the danger, and the praise pursue. Fair Leda's twins, (in time to stars decreed,) One fought on foot, one curbed the fiery steed; Then issued forth famed Jason after these, Who manned the foremost ship that sailed the seas; Then Theseus, joined with bold Pirithous, came; A single concord in a double name: The Thestian sons, Idas, who swiftly ran, And Ceneus, once a woman, now a man. Lynceus, with eagle's eyes, and lion's heart; Leucippus, with his never-erring dart; Acastus, Phileus, Phœnix, Telamon, } Echion, Lelex, and Eurytion, } Achilles' father, and great Phocus' son; } Dryas the fierce, and Hippasus the strong