Atalanta

Atalanta’s father, whatever his name was Atalanta’s father, whatever his name was. Nobody will ever know for some reason, once he had a daughter he was bitterly disappointed. He decided that she was not worthy bringing up and had the child left in the wild to die of cold and starvation. As the child lay alone in the wilderness, a she-bear took charge of her, nursed her and kept her warm. The baby grew up into an active, daring woman. While she was alone in the wilderness, she came across kind hunters and took her to live with them. She became more than their equal in all arduous feats of a hunter’s life.

One day when Atalanta was hunting, she caught the attention of two Centaurs, which which then pursued her. Instead of running away, she faced the two monsters and shot both of them down with her bow. Showing her braveness and skill with a bow.

Atalanta then went on a famous hunt of the Calydonian boar. The boar was a terrible creature sent to ravage the people the country of Calydon by Artemis in order to punish King Oeneus. The reasoning behind this punishment was due to forgetting to sacrifice the first fruits to the Gods at the harvest time. The boar devastated the land, destroyed the cattle, and killed all men who tried to kill it.

Finally, Oeneus called for help upon the bravest men in Greece, and a splendid band of young heroes would come to the calling, including Atalanta. Some heroes resented her presence and felt it beneath them to go hunting with a woman, but Oeneus’ son Meleanger insisted that she was a loyal and skillful soldier. Which they finally gave in and accepted. Once they came across the boar, they surrounded it with no escape. The boar rushed and killed two men. Then men rushed around throwing spears attempting to hit the boar, but in their attempts, they killed another man in the crossfire.

Atalanta kept her head and wounded the boar Atalanta kept her head and wounded the boar. Her arrow was the first to strike it. Meleager then rushed on the wounded creature and stabbed it in the heart. Technically it was he who killed it, but the honors of the hunt went to Atalanta, and Meleager insisted that they should give her the skin of the boar.

Strangely, this was the cause of his own death. When he was just a week old, the fates appeared to his mother Althea, and thrown a log of wood into the fire burning in her chamber. They then sang “To you, O new-born child, we grant a gift, to live until the wood turns to ash” Althea snatched the wood from the fire and put out the flame and hid it in a chest, protecting it from ever being burned again. Her brothers were among the hunters who went to hunt the boar and felt insulted that Atalanta received the prized boar skin. They threatened his choice to give the prize to Atalanta and during this encounter, he killed both of his uncles.

When Althea found out about the news of her beloved brothers, and that her son had killed them. A rage took hold of her, she rushed to the chest and threw it into the fire. As the chest caught up in flames, Meleager fell to the ground and died. It was said that she forgot the wood was in the chest and one she realized what she had done to her son, she hung herself. Despite a tragic ending in Calydon, for Atalanta, this is was only the beginning of her great adventures. Some say she could have sailed with the argonauts but is never mentioned in the story. Some say she also volunteered in a wrestling match in which she beat Achilles’ father Peleus.

Following that great achievement, is when she discovered who her parents were and went to live with them. Her father reconciled to having a daughter who really seemed almost if not quite as a son. Surprisingly, a lot of men wanted to marry her because of all of her physical attributes, hunting, shooting a bow, and wrestling. In order to distinguish who was a suitable choice to be her husband, she declared that she would marry whoever could beat her in a foot race, well knowing that no man could ever accomplish this feat.

But at last one came who used his head as well as his heels But at last one came who used his head as well as his heels. He knew he wasn’t as good of a runner as she but he had a plan. His name was either Milanion or Hippomenes. By the favor of Aphrodite, got possession of three wondrous apples, which all were pure gold and they grew from the garden of Hesperides. No one could see them alive and not want to have them.

As they prepared to race, he held the apples in hand and as they began to run he rolled one of the three apples directly in front of her. This caused her to stop to pick up the apple while he continued to run forward. A few moments more, he threw the second apple. But after she picked up the second apple, she began to gain ground. It was at that point he dropped the third and final apple, giving him enough time to cross the finish line and take her as his wife.

The two are said to have been turned into lions because of some affront offered to either Zeus or Aphrodite. Before they had been turned into lions, Atalanta had a son, Parthenopeaus, who ends up being one of the seven against Thebes.