Atalanta was a female athlete in Greek mythology. There are two similar stories told about her and they may well be regional variations on the same tale. In one she is an Arcadian princess and in another Boeotian. When she was born her father Lasus, was disappointed because he had wanted a son rather than a daughter. He took the baby, Atalanta, to the mountain forest and left her there. Artemis sent a wild bear, which fed and raised Atalanta with her own cubs. The mother bear taught Atalanta to hunt and wrestle.

Atalanta grew up to become very beautiful, became a fast runner, and built a reputation as a huntress. The oracle told her that she should remain a virgin. When two centaurs tried to rape her, she killed them both. She offered to go with Jason and the Argonauts on their quest to find the Golden Fleece but Jason reluctantly refused, not because he did not think her as capable as a man, but because he could imagine the problems a lone woman would cause amongst the Argo’s crew. 

King Oeneus of Calydon when sacrificing the first crops to the gods left Artemis out. Furious, Artemis sent a huge wild boar to terrify the people and raid the land. King Oeneus assembled all the best hunters, including Atalanta, and they set out on the Calydonian hunt. Atalanta hit the boar first, but Meneleger, Oeneus’s son, killed the animal. The skin was rightfully his, because he killed the boar, but he loved Atalanta and gave her the skin. His mother’s brothers who were on the hunt, objected and a fight followed, during which Meneleger killed them. Meneleger’s mother, angry that Meneleger had killed her brothers, caused his death.

Atalanta’s father then claimed her, she told him that she would never marry but suitors kept bothering him for her hand in marriage. Atalanta and her father decided that whoever could beat her in a race would become her husband, knowing no man could outrun her. The losing suitors were executed. Atalanta and her father thought a few executions would deter further suitors and she could avoid marriage without shaming her father. Hippomenes, stunned by Atalanta’s beauty and knowing he could not beat her in a race, prayed to Aphrodite, goddess of love. Aphrodite gave Hippomenes three golden apples.

Hippomenes dropped these apples at intervals along the race route slowing Atalanta, who attracted by their beauty, spent time looking for them. In this way, Hippomenes won the race and he and Atalanta were married. After their wedding, Hippomenes forgot to thank Aphrodite for her assistance. The couple went instead to Zeus’s temple to ask blessing for their marriage. Aphrodite was furious and filled both with extreme desire. Atalanta and Hippomenes could not control themselves and desecrated Zeus’s temple. Zeus turned them into lions so they could not mate because the Greeks believed that lions could only mate with leopards.

Some myths report that Atalanta bore a son, Parthenopaeus, whom she left on the same mountain that her father had left her on when she was a baby. He grew up to become a hero. A few versions of the myth say that Atalanta was the goddess of sport, especially running, and hunting. Her name in Greek means of equal weight, perhaps she is the goddess of female equality.

There are morals within Atalanta’s story, as there are within all Greek myths. They were a way to pass history, knowledge and morality down through the generations. In Atalanta’s case, one moral is that pride comes before a fall, and in Hippomenes, that one should remember to thank others for their help, but many other lessons weave themselves into Atalanta’s story, such as one should exercise self-discipline, especially in temples.