Greek: Αταλάντη
When Atalanta was born, her father Iasius had wished for a son so badly that he abandoned her on the top of a mountain. Artemis sympathized with the child and sent a mother bear to find and care for her. The mother bear cared for Atalanta as one of her own cubs.
Hunting in the woods on day, Meleager, the Prince of Calydon, kills a bear. Who happens to be Atalanta's "brother". Enraged by Meleager, Atalanta attacks him, only to stop when she feels his skin. She realizes that he is human, like her, and that she is actually not who she thought she was.
Later, Atalanta was invited to come and hunt the Calydon boar with the Argonauts. It was a great honor considering she was the only woman there. The Calydon boar was a vicious creature that supposedly had elephant-like tusks and was enormous. During the hunt, Meleager fell in love with Atalanta, though she later refused any marriage proposals. As the hunters struggled to kill the beast Atalanta shot and arrow, the first to draw blood. Meleager then killed the beast. Although she had not killed the massive boar, Meleager gave Atalanta the head, or in some versions, the hide of the boar; because she was the first to wound the animal. Meleager's uncles were extremely angry that a woman would be awarded the hide. Since he was protective of Atalanta, Meleager killed his uncles, after they had expressed their dissatisfaction.
Confused by Meleager's reaction, Atalanta sought out her parents. She eventually found her father, who wanted her to be married. Although she did not want to become a wife, her father made a bargain. She would have a race with all of her suitors. The condition being that if one of the suitor's beat her, she would marry him. If her suitor lost the race, he would be killed. Atalanta agreed, knowing that she was faster than human.
Many suitors came to race Atalanta, entranced by her powerful beauty. Even though the stakes were high, many suitors still wanted to come and try and win the hand of the fair Atalanta. Many suitors lost their lives to her swiftness. Hippomenes a suitor became deeply in love with Atalanta when he saw her. But knew that he could never win the race against her. He prayed to Venus, the goddess of love to help him win her hand in marriage. Venus, feeling poorly for the suitor gave him three golden apples. She told him to throw the golden fruit while he was racing to try and distract her and slow her down. In some versions of the myth Venus gave Hippomenes quince flowers instead. Atalanta finding Hippomenes attractive, asked him not to race her. As she did not want to see the man die. Venus's trick worked. Each time Hippomenes fell behind, he would throw an apple in front of Atalanta, who would stop to pick up the fruit. Hippomenes barely finished before Atalanta, winning her hand in marriage.
It is said that Atalanta and Hippomenes did not give proper tribute to Venus, for helping them. So she turned them into lions.