Crura nec ablato prosunt velocia cervo.
[23] See the same image in the "Annus Mirabilis:"
"With his loll'd tongue he faintly licks his prey,
His warm breath blows her flix up as she lies."
Vol. IX. p. 128.
MELEAGER AND ATALANTA,
OUT OF THE EIGHTH BOOK OF
OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.
CONNECTION TO THE FORMER STORY.
Ovid, having told how Theseus had freed Athens from the tribute of children, which was imposed on them by Minos king of Crete, by killing the Minotaur, here makes a digression to the story of Meleager and Atalanta, which is one of the most inartificial connections in all the Metamorphoses; for he only says, that Theseus obtained such honour from that combat, that all Greece had recourse to him in their necessities; and, amongst others, Calydon, though the hero of that country, prince Meleager, was then living.