Chapter Calydon to Camilla of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Calydon to Camilla

Calydon (Prince of), Meleager, famed for killing the Calydonian boar.—Apollodorus, i. 8. (See Meleager.)

As did the fatal brand Althæa burn’d
Unto the prince’s heart of Calydon.
   —Shakespeare: 2 Henry VI. act i. sc. I (1591).

Calydon, a town of Ætolia, founded by Calydon. In Arthurian romance Calydon is a forest in the north of our island. Probably it is what Richard of Cirencester calls the “Caledonian Wood,” westward of the Varar or Murray Frith.

Calydonian Hunt. Artemis, to punish Œneus [E.nuce] king of Calydon, in Ætolia, for neglect, sent a monster boar to ravage his vineyard s. His son Meleager collected together a large company to hunt it. The boar being killed, a dispute arose respecting the head, and this led to a war between the Curetês and Calydonians.

A similar tale is told of Theseus, who vanquished and killed the gigantic sow which ravaged the territory of Krommyon, near Corinth. (See Krommyonian Sow.)

Calypso, in Télémaque, a prose epic by Fénelon, is meant for Mde. de Montespan. In mythology she was queen of the island Ogygia, on which Ulyssês was wrecked, and where he was detained for seven years.

Calypso’s Isle, Ogygia, a mythical island “in the navel of the sea.” Some consider it to be Gozo, near Malta. Ogygia (not the island) is Bœotia, in Greece.

Camacho. (See Basilius, p. 94.)

Camalodunum, Colchester.

Girt by half the tribes of Britain, near the colony Camulodine.

   —Tennyson: Boadicea.

Camanches or Comanches, an Indian tribe of the Texas (United States).

It is a caravan, whitening the desert where dwell the Camanches.

   —Longfellow: To the Driving Cloud

Camaralzaman. (See Badoura, p. 81.)

Camballo, the second son of Cambuscan king of Tartary, brother of Algarsife and Canacê. He fought with two knights who asked the lady Canacê to wife, the terms being that none should have her till he had succeeded in worsting Camballo in combat. Chaucer does not give us the sequel of this tale, but Spenser says that three brothers, named Priamond, Diamond, and Triamond were suitors, and that Triamond won her. The mother of these three (all born at one birth) was Agapê, who dwelt in Faëry-land (bk. iv. 2).

N.B.—Spensermakes Cambina (daughter of Agapê) the lady-love of Camballo. Camballo is also called Camballus and Cambel.

Camballo’s Ring, given him by his sister Canacê, “had power to stanch all wounds that mortally did bleed.”

Well ye wonder how that noble knight,
After he had so often wounded been,
Could stand on foot now to renew the fight…
All was thro’ virtue of the ring he wore;
The which not only did not from him let
One drop of blood to fall, but did restore
His weakened powers and his dulled spirits whet.
   —Spenser: Faërie Queene, iv. 2 (1596).