Atalanta. A fleet-footed huntress, Atalanta was the daughter of either Iasus of Arcadia and Clymene or King Schoeneus of Boeotia: the ancient sources are not clear whether there were, in fact, two different figures with this name or if they were one and the same person. One Atalanta was famous for her part in the Calydonian boar hunt, the other associated with the legend covered in this entry.
Atalanta was determined to keep her virginity and, known as a swift runner, refused to marry any man who could not best her in a footrace. Those who lost the race were killed. After a number of suitors had perished, Hippomenes (Melanion) agreed to race with her. Aphrodite (Venus) gave him three golden apples—said to be the apples of the Hesperides—and these he dropped along the way to delay Atalanta. The ruse worked and he won the race (some say because Atalanta wished him to). But the successful suitor was so eager to consummate the marriage that he made love to Atalanta in a sacred shrine. For this impiety they were changed into lions. In Propertius’s version, the couple fell in love while hunting.

See also Meleager, Boar Hunt.