10 Olivia Pound 
one that is perverse. She has realized that Meleager is yielding 
to love for Atalanta, who has turned against custom and devoted 
her life to Artemis. 
A woman armed makes war upon herself, 
Unwomanlike, and treads down use and wont 
And the sweet common honor that she hath,39 
Meleager though moved by his mother’s words persists in his 
worship of Atalanta. Then Althaea gives a final warning. In 
this she manifests the spirit of the relentless vengeance that she 
later seems to personify.*° 
Live if thou wilt, and if thou wilt not, look, 
The gods have given thee life to lose or keep, 
Thou shalt not die as men die, but thine end 
Fallen upon thee shall break me unaware. 
Later in the play, when the messenger brings the news that 
Meleager has slain Plexippus and Toxeus, Althaea utters a 
lament that shows wonderful love and sisterly gratitude.** She 
is torn between love for her son and for her brothers.*? At last 
the spirit of her mother seems to drive her to blood atonement. 
She becomes, as it were, the avenging spirit of her house.** 
Fate’s are we, 
Yet fate is ours a breathing-space; yea, mine, 
Fate is made mine forever; . . . you strong gods, 
Give place unto me; I am as any of you, 
To give life and to take life. 
The stock character, the messenger, is used by Swinburne, 
as by the Greek tragedians, to describe some situation or action 
occurring outside the “unity” of place. None of his messengers 
have any individuality. They are “idealized” messengers, and 
39 [bid., p. 265. 
40 Tbid., p. 272. 
41 Atalanta in Calydon, p. 308. 
42 Tbid., p. 300. 
43 Thid., p. 314. 
35° 
