Ancient sources preserve two distinct versions of the huntress Atalanta. One is from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Calydonian boar hunt and the Argonauts. The other is from Boeotia, the daughter of King Schoeneus, primarily noted for her skill in the footrace. In both traditions she was a local figure allied to the goddess Artemis.

She married the suitor who defeated her in the footrace, called Hippomenes (also known as Melanion). By him she bore a son, Parthenopaeus, who became one of the Seven against Thebes; sources variously name the boy's father as Melanion, Meleager, or Ares.

At birth, Atalanta was abandoned on Mount Parthenion because her wealthy father had desired a son. A she-bear, one of the symbols of Artemis, nursed her after hunters had killed the bear's cubs, and those same hunters then raised her in the mountains. She grew into a swift-footed virgin who shunned men and devoted herself to the huntress Artemis.

Atalanta modeled herself after Artemis, wearing a simple sleeveless tunic that reached her knees and living in the wilderness. While in the wild she slew two centaurs, Rhoecus and Hylaeus, with her bow and arrows after her beauty had caught their attention and they attempted to rape her.

Atalanta is only occasionally mentioned in the legend of the Argonauts. According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, she sailed with the Argonauts as the only woman among them. In the account of Diodorus Siculus, she fought alongside them at the battle in Colchis. Apollonius of Rhodes, however, states that Jason prevented her from taking part, on the grounds that as a woman she had the potential to cause strife among the men aboard the ship.

After the death of King Pelias, funeral games were held at which Atalanta defeated the hero Peleus in a wrestling match, a contest that became a popular subject in Greek art.

King Oeneus of Calydon had forgotten to honour Artemis with a sacrifice, so the goddess sent the Calydonian boar, a monstrous wild beast that ravaged the land, the cattle, and the people. Atalanta joined the hunt for it alongside Meleager and other heroes. Many of the men objected to her participation, but Meleager convinced them otherwise, for he desired to father a child with Atalanta after hearing of her expertise in archery and her beauty while hunting.

During the hunt, Atalanta drew first blood on the boar with her bow, and after others had wounded it Meleager ended its life. Meleager awarded the hide to Atalanta for her valor, but his uncles took it from her, considering it dishonorable for a woman to hold such a prize. Meleager killed his uncles in response, and his mother Althaea was so grief-stricken that she threw the log bound to her son's life into the fire, killing him.

According to Ovid, before her adventures Atalanta consulted an oracle who prophesied that marriage would be her undoing. After the Calydonian boar hunt, social custom required her to marry, so she agreed to wed only a suitor who could outrun her in a footrace, which the swift-footed Atalanta knew was impossible.

Hippomenes, who fell in love with Atalanta at first sight, knew he could not defeat her athletically and so prayed to the goddess Aphrodite for assistance. Aphrodite, who felt spurned because Atalanta was a devotee of Artemis and rejected love, provided him with three irresistible golden apples. During the race, each time Atalanta caught up with Hippomenes he would toss another apple, and by this means he won. Atalanta afterward bore a son, Parthenopaeus, who became one of the Seven against Thebes.

After winning the footrace, Hippomenes forgot to thank Aphrodite. While hunting, the couple had sexual relations in a sanctuary belonging to either Zeus or Rhea. For this sacrilege they were turned into lions, by either Artemis (angered that Atalanta had lost her virginity), the goddess Cybele, or Zeus himself.

The belief at the time was that lions could not mate with their own species but only with leopards; therefore Atalanta and Hippomenes, as lions, would never again be able to have intercourse of love.

Algernon Charles Swinburne published the verse play Atalanta in Calydon in 1865. The Italian football club Atalanta B.C. took its name from the heroine, and the club's crest depicts her face. A version of Atalanta's story appears in Free to Be... You and Me (1974).

The javelin thrower Fatima Whitbread said she was inspired by the myth of Atalanta, whom no man could outrun except by cheating, and whose javelin killed a terrible monster. The European Union's anti-piracy mission off Somalia is named Operation Atalanta in reference to the heroine.