The mother, Cleopatra sadly wailed, As wails the halcyon. So beside his spouse Dwelt Meleager, brooding ever o’er The violent anger which his mother’s curse Had kindled. Grieving for a brother’s death, She supplicated heaven, and often struck Her hands against the teeming earth, and called⁠— Kneeling, her bosom all bedewed with tears⁠— On Pluto and the cruel Proserpine, To put her son to death. From Erebus The pitiless Erinnys, wandering In darkness, heard the prayer. Then straightway rose A sound of fearful tumult at the gates: The towers were battered, and the elder chiefs Of the Aetolians hastened to entreat The aid of Meleager, and they sent Priests of the gods, a chosen band, to pray That he would come to their defence. Large gifts They promised. Where the soil of Calydon Was best, they bade him choose a fruitful field Of fifty acres, half for vines, and half, Cleared of the trees, for tillage. Earnestly Did aged Oeneus, famed for horsemanship, Beseech him; to the chamber of his son, High-roofed, he climbed, and at the threshold shook The massive doors with knocking as he sued. His sisters and his reverend mother joined Their supplications: he resisted still. And much his friends, the dearest and most prized, Besought him, but they vainly strove to swerve His steadfast mind, till his own chamber felt The assault, and the Curetes climbed the walls To fire the populous city. Then the nymph, His graceful wife, entreated him with tears, And spake of all the horrors which o’ertake A captured city⁠—all the men cut off By massacre, the houses given to flames, The children and deep-bosomed women dragged Into captivity. Her sorrowful words He heard; his spirit was disturbed; he went To gird his glittering armor on, and thus He saved the Aetolians from a fearful doom, Obeying his own impulse. The reward Of rare and costly gifts they gave him not, Though thus he rescued them. Be not thy thought Like his, my friend; let no invisible power Persuade thee thus to act. Far worse it were To wait, and when our fleet is all on fire Offer thy aid. Accept the gifts at once: Then will the Greeks, as if thou wert a god, Hold thee in honor. If without the gifts Thou enter later on the field of fight, Thou wilt not have like honor with the host, Although thou turn the assault of battle back.”