Mythology Part 3, Chapter 4: Atalanta

There may have been two Atalantas, but the famous one was either a daughter of Iasus or Schoenius. Her father left her in the wilderness because he had wanted a son. A she-bear took her in and eventually hunters adopted her. She became so good at hunting that she killed two Centaurs. The Calydonian Boar Hunt attracted her interest. She went and the King of Calydon's son, Meleager, fell in love with her. Other men resented that there was a woman on the hunt. Her arrow was the first to strike the boar. After it fell, Meleager wished her to have the skin instead of him. He killed his uncles who opposed him and his mother threw the firebrand into the fire that kept him alive. He died. At the funeral games of Pelias, she wrestled and beat Peleus, the father of Achilles.

Eventually she was reconciled with her parents and received many suitors. She told them that she would marry only the man who could beat her in a foot race, hoping to avoid marriage altogether. She beat many. A youth named Melanion came to race her with three golden apples. Each time he neared her, he would drop one and she would stop to pick it up. This is how he beat her. Later they were turned into lions. They had one son.

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