The Meleagrides
Previous tale: Ctesylla (Tale 1). This page is Tale 2 only. The tale is headed, in the Greek, with its source: Nicander tells it in the third book of his Heteroeumena. Greek and English are given paragraph by paragraph, so each paragraph can be checked against the other. Further tales will be added one at a time as they are finished.
1
Ἱστορεῖ Νίκανδρος Ἑτεροιουμένων γ'.
Οἰνεὺς ὁ Πορθέως τοῦ Ἄρεως ἐβασίλευσεν ἐν Καλυδῶνι. καὶ ἐγένοντο αὐτῷ ἐξ Ἀλθαίας τῆς Θεστίου Μελέαγρος, Φηρεύς, Ἀγέλεως, Τοξεύς, Κλύμενος, Περίφας, θυγατέρες δὲ Γόργη, Εὐρυμήδη, Δηιάνειρα, Μελανίππη. ἐπεὶ δ' ἔθυεν ἀπαρχὰς ὑπὲρ τῆς χώρας, ἐκλανθάνεται τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος.
Nicander tells this in the third book of his Heteroeumena.
Oeneus, son of Portheus, son of Ares, was king in Calydon. And there were born to him by Althaea, daughter of Thestius: Meleager, Phereus, Ageleus, Toxeus, Clymenus, Periphas, and daughters, Gorge, Eurymede, Deianira, and Melanippe. When he was sacrificing first-fruits on behalf of the land, he forgot Artemis.
2
αὕτη κατὰ μῆνιν ἐφορμᾷ σῦν ἄγριον, ὅς κατέφθειρε τὴν γῆν καὶ πολλοὺς ἀπέκτεινεν.
She, in anger, sent a wild boar, which ravaged the land and killed many.
3
ἔπειτα Μελέαγρος καὶ οἱ Θεστίου παῖδες συνήγειραν τοὺς ἀριστέας ἐκ τῆς Ἑλλάδος ἐπὶ τὸν σῦν, οἱ δὲ ἀφικόμενοι κτείνουσιν αὐτόν. ὁ δὲ Μελέαγρος διανείμας τὰ κρέα αὐτοῦ τοῖς ἀριστεῦσι τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ τὸ δέρος ἐξαιρεῖ γέρας ἑαυτῷ.
Then Meleager and the sons of Thestius gathered the best men from Greece against the boar, and when they arrived they killed it. Meleager, dividing its flesh among the best men, took the head and the hide as a prize for himself.
4
Ἄρτεμις δὲ, ἐπεὶ τὸν ἱερὸν σῦν ἔκτειναν, ἔτι μᾶλλον ἐχολώθη καὶ νεῖκος ἐνέβαλεν αὐτοῖς.
But Artemis, since they had killed the boar sacred to her, grew still angrier and cast strife among them.
5
οἱ γὰρ παῖδες οἱ Θεστίου καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι Κουρῆτες ἅπτονται τοῦ δέρους φάμενοι μετεῖναι τὰ ἡμίσεα τῶν γερῶν ἑαυτοῖς. Μελέαγρος <δὲ> ἀφαιρεῖται κατὰ βίαν καὶ κτείνει τοὺς Θεστίου παῖδας.
For the sons of Thestius and the other Curetes seized the hide, saying that half of the prizes belonged to them. Meleager took it away by force and killed the sons of Thestius.
6
ἐκ ταύτης τῆς προφάσεως πόλεμος ἐγένετο Κουρῆσι καὶ Καλυδωνίοις· καὶ ὁ Μελέαγρος εἰς τὸν πόλεμον οὐκ ἐξῄει μεμφόμενος ὅτι αὐτῷ κατηράσατο ἡ μήτηρ διὰ τὸν τῶν ἀδελφῶν θάνατον. ἤδη δὲ τῶν Κουρήτων μελλόντων αἱρεῖν τὴν πόλιν ἔπεισε τὸν Μελέαγρον ἡ γυνὴ Κλεοπάτρα τοῖς Καλυδωνίοις ἀμῦναι, ὁ δὲ ἀναστὰς ἐπὶ τὸν στρατὸν τῶν Κουρήτων καὶ αὐτὸς ἀποθνῄσκει, τῆς μητρὸς ἐμπρησάσης τὸν παρὰ τῶν Μοιρῶν αὐτῇ δοθέντα δαλόν· ἐπέκλωσαν γὰρ ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον αὐτὸν ἔσεσθαι χρόνον ἐφ' ὅσον ἄν ὁ δαλὸς διαμένῃ. ἀπέθανον δὲ καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι παῖδες Οἰνέως μαχόμενοι.
From this pretext war arose between the Curetes and the Calydonians. And Meleager did not go out to war, complaining that his mother had cursed him for the death of her brothers. But when the Curetes were already about to take the city, his wife Cleopatra persuaded Meleager to defend the Calydonians. He rose against the army of the Curetes and himself died, his mother having burned the brand given to her by the Fates; for they had spun that he would live for as long as the brand lasted. The other sons of Oeneus also died fighting.
7
καὶ πένθος ἐπὶ Μελεάγρῳ μέγιστον ἐγένετο παρὰ Καλυδωνίοις.
And there was very great grief for Meleager among the Calydonians.
8
αἱ δὲ άδελφαὶ αὐτοῦ παρὰ τὸ σῆμα ἐθρήνουν ἀδιαλείπτως ἄχρις αὐτὰς Ἄρτεμις ἁψάμενη ῥάβδῳ μετεμόρφωσεν εἰς ὄρνιθας καὶ ἀπῴκησεν εἰς Λέρον τὴν νῆσον, ὀνομάσασα μελεαγρίδας. αἱ δὲ ἄχρι νῦν ἔτι καθ' ὥραν ἔτους λέγονται πένθος ἐπὶ Μελεάγρῳ φέρειν.
His sisters mourned unceasingly beside his tomb until Artemis, touching them with her wand, transformed them into birds and settled them on the island of Leros, calling them Meleagrides. And they are said to this day to bear grief for Meleager at the season of the year.
9
δύο δὲ τῶν Ἀλθαίας θυγατέρων Γόργην καὶ Δηιάνειράν φασι κατ' εὐμένειαν Διονύσου μὴ μεταβαλεῖν, ὅτι τὴν χάριν αὐτῷ Ἄρτεμις διδοῖ.
Two of Althaea's daughters, Gorge and Deianira, they say did not change, through the goodwill of Dionysus, because Artemis granted this favour to him.
Notes
- The genealogy in paragraph 1: the genitive chain is compressed, read as Oeneus, son of Portheus, son of Ares.
- Paragraph 5, <δὲ>: the δὲ is in angle brackets in the source, an editorial supplement.
- Paragraph 6, “her brothers”: these are Althaea's brothers, Meleager's maternal uncles, whom he killed in paragraph 5.
- The brand: the tale assumes, without telling, that the Fates gave Althaea a brand at Meleager's birth, with his life lasting as long as it did. The translation does not expand that background, since the Greek does not.
- Meleagrides: guineafowl, named for Meleager. The sisters' yearly mourning is the aetiology: the birds are said still to grieve at the season of the year.
- Paragraph 9, “to him”: the favour is granted to Dionysus, not to Gorge and Deianira directly. That is why those two alone are excepted. “Did not change” is kept as the strict reading; the Greek does not spell out “into birds” here.
Tale 3 will follow when it is finished. Corrections are welcome via the contact form; please say which paragraph you mean.