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ATALANTA

ATALANTA, MELEAGER, & THE HESPERIDES

Atalanta, in Greek Mythology, a renowned and swift-footed huntress, probably a parallel and less important form of the goddess Artemis. Traditionally, she was the daughter of Schoeneus of Boeotia or of Iasus and Clymene of Arcadia.

Her complex legend includes the following incidents. On her father's orders, she was left to die at birth but was suckled by a she-bear. She took part in the Calydonian boar hunt; Atalanta drew first blood and was awarded the boar's head and hide by the boar's slayer, Meleager, who was in love with her. When his uncles took away the spoils from her, Meleager killed them and was in turn killed by their sister, his own mother. In the most famous story, one popular with ancient and modern artists, Atalanta offered to marry anyone who could outrun her—but those whom she overtook she speared. In one race Hippomenes was given three of the golden apples of the Hesperides by the goddess Aphrodite; when he dropped them, Atalanta stopped to pick them up and so lost the race. Their son was Parthenopaeus, who later was one of the Seven who fought against Thebes after the death of King Oedipus. Atalanta and her husband, overcome with passion, made love in a shrine of the goddess Cybele (or of Zeus), for which they were turned into lions.

Meleager, in Greek Mythology, the leader of the Calydonian boar hunt. The Iliad relates how Meleager's father, King Oeneus of Calydon, had omitted to sacrifice to Artemis, who sent a wild boar to ravage the country. Meleager collected a band of heroes to hunt it, and he eventually killed it himself. The Calydonians and the Curetes (neighbouring warriors who aided in the hunt) then quarrelled over the spoils, and war broke out between them. In this war Meleager killed the brother of his mother, Althaea, and she cursed him. At one point the Curetes besieged Calydon; since Meleager refused to fight, the Curetes were on the verge of victory when Meleager finally joined the battle and repulsed them. The Iliad does not describe Meleager's death, though it mentions that it occurred before the Trojan War. His mother caused his death by burning the log whose span of existence was with his.

Hesperides (singular Hesperis), in Greek Mythology, were clear-voiced maidens who guarded the tree bearing golden apples that Gaea gave to Hera at her marriage to Zeus. According to Hesiod, they were the daughters of Erebus and Night; in other accounts, their parents were Atlas and Hesperis or Phorcys and Ceto. They were usually three in number, Aegle, Erytheia, and Hespere, but by some accounts were as many as seven. They were usually said to live in the west beyond the sunset, but the Greek poet and grammarian Apollonius of Rhodes placed them in North Africa, and the mythographer Apollodorus (2nd century BC) located them among the Hyperboreans. The golden apples were also guarded by the dragon Ladon, the offspring of Phorcys and Ceto. As Ladon is the name of an Arcadian river, Arcadia was possibly the original site of the garden. The golden apples figured in different accounts of Heracles' 11th Labour. In one version Heracles slayed the dragon and took the apples. In another version Heracles held the heavens while Atlas took the apples for him. In some artistic representations, Heracles dines with the Hesperides, who freely give him the apples. The golden apples that Aphrodite gave to Hippomenes before his race with were also from the garden of the Hesperides.