Atalanta

Atalanta, in Greek mythology, the daughter of Schoeneus of Boeotia or of Iasus of Arcadia. Disappointed that she was not a boy, her father abandoned her on a mountainside shortly after her birth. She was rescued and nursed by a she-bear and later raised by hunters. By the time she had grown up, she was a skilled hunter herself. The feat for which she became especially famous was her participation in the boar hunt of Calydon, a city of Aetolia in central Greece.

According to another legend, Atalanta was a fleet-footed runner who offered to marry anyone who could defeat her in a race. Those who lost were killed. The youth Hippomenes (or Melanion) won with the aid of Aphrodite, goddess of love, who gave him three golden apples of the Hesperides. He dropped them one by one, and, by stopping to pick them up, Atalanta lost the race. She and Hippomenes were later turned into lions because of an affront to the gods. Parthenopaeus, their son, joined the expedition of the Seven Against Thebes.