There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one fromArcadia,[2] whose parents wereIasus andClymene[3][4] and who is primarily known from the tales of theCalydonian boar hunt and theArgonauts;[5] and the other fromBoeotia, who is the daughter of KingSchoeneus[6][7][8] and is primarily noted for her skill in the footrace.[6] In both versions, Atalanta was a local figure allied to the goddessArtemis;[9] in such oral traditions, minor characters were often assigned different names, resulting in minor regional variations.[10]
Atalanta. Marble, 1703–1705. Copy by Pierre Lepautre of a Roman work after a Hellenistic original.
At birth, Atalanta was taken toMount Parthenion to beexposed because her father had desired a son.[4] A she-bear—one of the symbols of Artemis—whose cubs had been recently killed by hunters came upon Atalanta and nursed her until those same hunters discovered her and raised her themselves in the mountains.[2] Atalanta then grew up to be a swift-footed virgin who eschewed men and devoted herself to the huntress Artemis.[4]
Atalanta modelled herself after Artemis, wearing a simple sleevelesstunic that reached her knees and living in thewilderness.[2][3] While living in the wild, Atalanta slew twocentaurs by bow,Rhoecus and Hylaios, after her beauty caught their attention and they attempted to rape her.[2][3][4]
Black-figure pottery showing a wrestling match betweenPeleus and Atalanta during the funerary games of KingPelias. In the background, the prize of the duel: the skin and the head of the Calydonian boar.
Atalanta is only occasionally mentioned in the legend of the Argonauts;[10][11] however, her participation is noted inPseudo-Apollodorus's account, which says that during the search for theGolden Fleece, Atalanta, who was invited and invoked the protection of Artemis, sailed with the Argonauts as the only woman among them.[12] InDiodorus Siculus's account, Atalanta is not only noted to have sailed with the Argonauts but to have fought alongside them at the battle inColchis, where she,Jason,Laertes, and thesons of Thesipae were wounded and later healed byMedea.[13] In the account ofApollonius of Rhodes, Jason prevents Atalanta from joining not because she lacks skill but because as a woman she has the potential to cause strife among men on the ship.[14]
After the death of KingPelias inIolcus,funeral games were held in which Atalanta defeatedPeleus in a wrestling match.[4] This match became a popular subject in Greek art.[9]
In an annual celebration,King Oeneus ofCalydon had forgotten to honour Artemis with a sacrifice in his rites to the gods.[15][3] In anger, she sent theCalydonian boar, a monstrouswild boar that ravaged the land, cattle, and people, and prevented the crops from being sown.[15][16] Atalanta was called upon to joinMeleager,Theseus,Pollux,Telamon, Peleus, and all those who were part of the Argonaut expedition on the hunt for the boar.[15][7] Many of the men were angry that a woman was joining them, but Meleager, though having a family of his own, convinced them otherwise as he desired to father a child with Atalanta after hearing of her expertise in archery and beauty while hunting.[15][3][17]
During the huntHyleus andAncaeus were killed, Peleus accidentally killed a fellow hunter and others were wounded. Atalanta drew first blood on the boar with her bow.[15] After this feat, killing the boar became a collective effort as, after the initial blow,Amphiaraus shot the boar's eye and Meleager ended its life.[15] Meleager awarded the hide to Atalanta for her valor,[7][18] but it was taken away by Meleager's uncles,Plexippus andToxeus, who considered it dishonorable for a woman to hold such a prize.[15] In response, Meleager killed his uncles.[15]Althaea, Meleager's mother, became grief-stricken after hearing of her brothers’ deaths and threw the log that was tied to her son's life into a fire, killing him.[15][7]
According toOvid, before her adventures, Atalanta had consulted anoracle who prophesied that marriage would be her undoing. As a result, she chose to live in the wilderness.[19] After the Calydonian boar hunt, Atalanta was discovered by her father, who accepted her as his daughter and began to arrange a marriage for her.[4] To prevent this, she agreed to marry only if a suitor could outrun her in afootrace, which swift-footed Atalanta knew was impossible.[6][note 1] If the suitor was unsuccessful, he would be killed.[4][7] Her father agreed to the terms, and many suitors died in the attempt untilHippomenes,[6][19][note 2] who fell in love with Atalanta at first sight, appealed for divine help.[4] Hippomenes knew he could not best Atalanta even with the advantage of a head start, so he prayed to the goddessAphrodite for assistance.[6] Aphrodite, who felt spurned because Atalanta was a devotee of Artemis and rejected love, gave Hippomenes three irresistiblegolden apples.[4][19] As the race began, Atalanta, wearing armour and carrying weapons, quickly passed Hippomenes, but she was diverted off the path when he tossed an apple for her to retrieve;[7] each time Atalanta caught up with Hippomenes, he would toss another apple,[19] ultimately winning the race and Atalanta herself.[6][4]
After the footrace, Hippomenes forgot to thank Aphrodite for her aid, and while the couple were out hunting the goddess afflicted them with sexual passion so that they had sex in a sanctuary belonging to eitherZeus[7] orRhea.[19] They were turned into lions for their sacrilege by either Artemis (angered by Atalanta losing hervirginity), the goddessCybele, or Zeus himself.[4] The belief at the time was that lions could not mate with their own species, only withleopards; therefore Atalanta and Hippomenes would never be able to have "intercourse of love".[7][11]
This view has been criticized, however. In her bookThe Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World,Adrienne Mayor argues there is no evidence to support the notion that the Ancient Greeks believed male and female lions could not engage in sexual intercourse. Rather, Mayor contends the transformation of Atalanta and her lover into lions occurred at a moment of emotional and sexual bliss, which can be interpreted as divine sympathy for a couple who defied traditional Greekgender roles, and thus turning them into lions enabled the lovers to hunt and mate together for all eternity outside of Greek society, which would not have accepted their relationship.[23]
A version of Atalanta's story appears in the multimedia children's entertainment projectFree to Be... You and Me.[25][26] She is also the focus of the 2017 historical novelFor the Winner, by the British Classicist and authorEmily Hauser, which retells the story of Atalanta's voyage with the Argonauts.[27]
In thelight novelFate/Apocrypha, Atalanta is summoned as the Archer-class Servant of the Red faction.
Olympic-medal-winningjavelin throwerFatima Whitbread said that she took up an interest intrack and field events after being inspired by the myth of Atalanta, "whom no man could outrun except by cheating, and whose javelin killed a terrible monster."[28]
A version of Atalanta's story is told inAtalanta byJennifer Saint (2023). This modern feminist retelling claims Atalanta as the daughter of Iasus and follows both the tales of the Argonauts and the Calydonian boar hunt and the tales of her skill in the footrace.[29]
Oil painting of Atalanta and Meleager hunting the Calydonian boar (Jan Fyt, 1648). The Ringling, Bequest of John Ringling, 1936.
Meleager presenting Atalante the head of the Calydonian Boar in 16th century alabaster,Bode Museum
Landscape painting of the hunt.Jan Wildens, 17th century.
Meleager et Atalanta, from a drawing byGiulio Romano, engraved by François Louis Lonsing. Atalanta is at far left with bow; Meleager is right of her, spearing the Calydonian boar (1773).
Meleager Presenting the Head of the Calydonian Boar to Atalanta at the Temple of Artemis. M. Maurice Stora (1530–1535).
^Hyginus's Fabulae states that Atalanta's father, King Schoeneus, was the one who arranged for the footrace, as a result of his daughter’s choice to stay a virgin.[7]
^Generally thus named in antiquity, but also known as Melanion.[20][4]
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, Suppliants,Seven Against Thebes. Translation by Vellacott, P. The Penguin Classics. London. Penguin Books
Apollodorus,The Library of Greek Mythology. Translation by Aldrich, Keith. Lawrence, Kansas: Coronado Press, 1975.
Apollodorus,The Library. English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Includes Frazer's notes.
Apollonius Rhodius,Argonautica. Translation by Rieu, E. V. The Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books.
Barringer, Judith M. (1996). "Atalanta as Model: The Hunter and the Hunted".Classical Antiquity.15 (1):48–76.doi:10.2307/25011031.JSTOR25011031.
Callimachus,Hymns & Epigrams. Translation by Mair, A. W. & Mair, G. R. Loeb Classical Library Volume 129. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Diodorus Siculus,Library of History. Translation by Oldfather, C. H. Loeb Classical Library Volumes 303, 377. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press.
Hesiod,The Homeric Hymns, Translation by Evelyn-White, H. G. Loeb Classical Library Vol 57. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Howell, Reet A.; Howell, Maxwell L. (1989). "The Atalanta Legend in Art and Literature".Journal of Sport History.16 (2):127–139.JSTOR43609443.
Ovid,Metamorphoses. Translation by Melville, A. D
Hyginus,Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus, translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies, no. 34.https://topostext.org/work/206
Pausanias.Description of Greece. English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.
Philostratus Elder, Philostratus Younger,Callistratus. Translation by Fairbanks, A. Loeb Classical Library Vol 256. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Bolen, Jean Shinoda.Artemis: The Indomitable Spirit in Everywoman, Conari Press, 2014.
Faraone, C. A. (1990). "Aphrodite's ΚΕΣΤΟΣ and Apples for Atalanta: Aphrodisiacs in Early Greek Myth and Ritual".Phoenix.44 (3):219–243.doi:10.2307/1088934.JSTOR1088934.
Mathews, Richard (1971). "Heart's Love and Heart's Division: The Quest for Unity in "Atalanta in Catydon"".Victorian Poetry.9 (1/2):35–48.JSTOR40001587.
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