=Atalanta=, a daughter of Schœneus king of Scyros. According to some she was the daughter of Jasus or Jasius by Clymene; but others say that Menalion was her father. This uncertainty of not rightly knowing the name of her father has led the mythologists into error, and some have maintained that there were two persons of that name, though their supposition is groundless. Atalanta was born in Arcadia, and according to Ovid she determined to live in perpetual celibacy; but her beauty gained her many admirers, and to free herself from their importunities, she proposed to run a race with them. They were to run without arms, and she was to carry a dart in her hand. Her lovers were to start first, and whoever arrived at the goal before her would be made her husband; but all those whom she overtook were to be killed by the dart with which she had armed herself. As she was almost invincible in running, many of her suitors perished in the attempt, till Hippomenes the son of Macareus proposed himself as her admirer. Venus had presented him with three golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides, or, according to others, from an orchard in Cyprus; and as soon as he had started in the course, he artfully threw down the apples at some distance one from the other. While Atalanta, charmed at the sight, stopped to gather the apples, Hippomenes hastened on his course, arrived first at the goal, and obtained Atalanta in marriage. These two fond lovers, in the impatience of consummating their nuptials, entered the temple of Cybele; and the goddess was so offended at their impiety, and at the profanation of her house, that she changed them into two lions. Apollodorus says that Atalanta’s father was desirous of raising male issue, and that therefore she was exposed to wild beasts as soon as born. She was, however, suckled by a she-bear, and preserved by shepherds. She dedicated her time to hunting, and resolved to live in celibacy. She killed two centaurs, Hyleus and Rhecus, who attempted her virtue. She was present at the hunting of the Calydonian boar, which she first wounded, and she received the head as a present from Meleager, who was enamoured of her. She was also at the games instituted in honour of Pelias, where she conquered Peleus; and when her father, to whom she had been restored, wished her to marry, she consented to give herself to him who could overcome her in running, as has been said above. She had a son called Parthenopæus by Hippomenes. Hyginus says that that son was the fruit of her love with Meleager; and Apollodorus says she had him by Milanion, or, according to others, by the god Mars. _See:_ Meleager. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 3, ch. 9, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, chs. 36, 45, &c.――_Hyginus_, fables 99, 174, 185, 270. ――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 13.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 4; bk. 10, fable 11.――_Euripides_,