Atalanta of Arcadia, warned by an oracle that marriage would harm her, set suitors a deadly footrace — until the stranger Hippomenes, helped by Venus' three golden apples from Cyprus, slowed the swift virgin and won her; Apollodorus tells her exposure and bear-nursing, and Hyginus names the apples' divine gift.1
The swift virgin
Apollodorus gives her Arcadian birth: Iasus had a daughter Atalanta by Clymene, daughter of Minyas, and exposed the infant wanting sons. A she-bear suckled the child until hunters reared her. Grown to womanhood she kept herself a virgin and hunted in the wilderness. Ovid's oracle warned that marriage would only harm her, so she set suitors a race — losers died.2
The stranger
Hippomenes came from Onchestus, son of Megareus, condemning the rash youths who risked death for love — until he saw Atalanta stripped for the running and prayed to be her suitor. He begged Venus for aid; the goddess plucked three golden apples from her sacred tree at Tamasus in Cyprus and taught him their use.3
The golden apples
In the race Hippomenes dropped the apples one by one; each time Atalanta turned aside to gather the gleaming fruit and lost ground. He reached the goal first and claimed her. Apollodorus notes that Euripides made Hippomenes, not Melanion, her husband — a rival tradition to the Melanion line.4
· EXEUNT ·
How the centuries saw it
Hippomenes and Atalanta
Guido Reni, 1618–1619
Reni's Prado canvas freezes the race's hinge: Atalanta stoops for a golden apple while Hippomenes surges ahead — Aphrodite's gift buying victory.
The Race between Hippomenes and Atalanta
Noël Hallé, 1765
Hallé's Louvre Rococo race: Atalanta hesitates over scattered apples as Hippomenes runs on — Ovid's contest as courtly allegory of love conquering pride.
Atalanta and Hippomenes
Nicolas Colombel, c. 1680
Colombel's late-Baroque runners restage the footrace — the huntress who races suitors to the death, slowed by gold that will cost them both.
Atalanta and Hippomenes, from 'Game of Mythology'
Unknown (after Stefano della Bella), 1644
MET engraving from the Jeu de la Mythologie: the race reduced to a playing-card emblem — golden apples and the suitor who will not be outrun.