birth of his first-born. When the new baby proves not to be the son and heir he expects, he vents his anger on his unwanted daughter and orders a shepherd to take her to a nearby mountain and leave her there to die of exposure or an attack by a wild animal. Atalanta begins her life unwanted and rejected. But what was intended as the end of her life in fact turns out to be an unusual beginning.
The shepherd does as he is told. He takes the baby and places her among the rocks on the mountain. Atalanta wails; she is hungry, wet, and cold. Her cries attract a mother bear whose den is somewhere nearby. Whether out of curiosity or maternal instinct, the bear investigates and sniffs the baby. Atalanta grasps the fur of the bear and the human infant and mother bear bond. The mother bear takes the baby to her den, suckles her, and keeeps her warm. It was said that the goddess Artemis sent the bear.
Bear cubs are small and helpless when they are born. Like human babies, they cannot survive without maternal care. They grow to adulthood faster than human babies, however, so Atalanta is raised with a succession of cubs as siblings. In another version of the tale, when she is able to walk, she is found by hunters who raise her and teach her to hunt and speak.
Meleager
At about the same time that Atalanta is born, in the neighboring kingdom of Calydon, another king eagerly awaits the birth of his first-born. It is a boy! The son is named Meleager and his birth is greeted with festivities and celebration.
Shortly after Meleager is born, an unusual visitor—Atropos, one of the three Fates—calls upon Meleager's mother. A blazing fire heats the room in which the queen receives her guest. Atropos goes to the fireplace, stands on the hearth, and points to a log that is burning on one end. She says: “Do you see this? As long as it remains unconsumed, your son will live!” The queen leaps up, grasps the log, and smothers the flames. She then wraps it up, locks it in a brass chest, and hides the chest and the secret away. Meleager's life (or death) has been put into his mother's hands.
Meleager grows to manhood, raised to someday become king. Tutors teach him what he is expected to know to fill this role. His mother concentrates on finding him a suitable wife. Meleager spends as little time as he can in the castle. He prefers to be in the forests and wilderness of Calydon. Every so often, his mother insists that he meet an eligible young woman from a suitable family. Time and time again, the matchmaking fails. Meleager isn't interested in soft, frilly, feminine, simpering girls with whom he has nothing in common. “Find me a girl,” he says, “who can join me in the outdoors, who can be my companion.”
Atalanta and Meleager
One day when Meleager is out hunting, he hears the sound of a large animal and sees that it is a bear—a worthy trophy for him. With his strong arm and bow, he sends an arrow into the bear, wounding it badly, but not fatally. The bear, in pain and loosing blood, instinctively goes in the direction of its den, away from Calydon. Meleager follows, intent on bringing the bear down. The bear plunges through the brush and trees, hour after hour, mile after mile, losing blood and getting weaker as the day goes on. Finally, at the foothill of a mountain, the bear collapses.
Meleager has just caught up with the bear, when he sees a woman coming down the mountain toward him. He is immediately enthralled. She is everything that the girls he knows at court are not. She is as beautiful as any creature in nature—sun-tanned, long-haired, long-limbed, graceful, athletic—his dream girl!
“I am Meleager,” he tells her. “I killed this bear, and I will give his pelt to you as a trophy!”
“I am Atalanta,” she replies. “That bear is my brother, and now I will kill you!”
Atalanta rushes at him with killing on her mind. But Meleager, now smitten, has love on his. They are evenly matched and it seems as if they wrestle for hours.
Outdoors in the mountain air, with the smell of crushed grasses under them, both perspire as they wrestle, skin to skin. Atalanta's focus shifts to being in this totally new experience. This is the first time she has wrestled with a human being like herself—the first time she has felt skin rather than fur. The embrace begins with her wanting to kill Meleager, and him holding her to prevent it. As they struggle in this embrace, however, new feelings and curiosity arise in her.
However it happens, Meleager and Atalanta become a couple. Soon they become famous. Seen hunting together, they are a handsome pair, each as striking as the other in appearance and in skill. Meleager's mother seethes when she learns about the relationship. Atalanta is totally inappropriate for her son! She is truly a nobody, a rustic with no known family, and totally without social graces. Definitely not a proper young woman to become queen someday.
Meanwhile, the king has a major problem on his hands—a huge boar sent to devastate his kingdom by an outraged goddesss. He brought this on his kingdom by neglecting to honor Artemis in the yearly rites. Meleager's new girlfriend is probably not as much of a concern to him as the destruction caused by this creature.
The Hunt for the Calydon Boar
The boar is enormous. With its sharp curved tusks and its huge feet, it rages through fields, destroying crops and trampling domesticated animals and people who can not get out of its way. It destroys villages and threatens the whole countryside. Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, fashioned the boar out of mud and gave it life in retaliation against the king who neglected her while making sacrifices to other divinities. Although this is the usual reason given for her wrath, however, another cause may be the awe that people feel toward Atalanta, a mere human. When they look at Atalanta as if she were Artemis, this offends the goddess.
Regardless of the cause, the boar has to be dealt with. The king invites the heroes of Greece to gain honor and reward for themselves by hunting it. Among those who answer the challenge are many of the heroes who went with Jason as Argonauts and later took part in the Trojan War.
The heroes assemble prior to the hunt. The last to arrive are Meleager and Atalanta. The other hunters are scandalized. Even though she is now a famous hunter, how dare a woman join the hunt! There is muttering among the men, with Meleager's uncles speaking aloud against having Atalanta there, using demeaning words. Meleager rises to her defense, draws his sword, and challenges them. Cooler heads prevail and all are reminded that they are, after all, there to kill the boar.
It is a large hunting party of very strong, wily men, each wanting fame and reward for taking down the boar. Some are slashed or gored or trampled in the attempt. The canny boar takes its stand in a place where hunters can not act as a group, but have to attack the boar singly or in pairs. None of them succeed in even wounding the animal, because the boar's pelt is impervious to arrows and spears.
No one draws blood, until Atalanta faces the boar. The boar charges straight at her, its razor-sharp tusks now covered with blood, its massive weight bearing down upon her. Atalanta's bowstring is taut, her arrow at the ready, her eye steady. The boar is almost to her when, with unerring aim, she sends an arrow through one of its eyes, penetrating its brain. It staggers, but is not dead. Now it is Meleager's turn to act. He takes his sword and delivers the death blow.
The boar is dead! Meleager has the right to the pelt, but, instead of claiming it for himself, he gives it to Atalanta. This is truly an important trophy and there is resentment among the others that a woman should have it. It isn't just that it is a symbol of a major heroic achievement that will bring fame to the one who possesses it. This pelt can be made into a garment that is flexible, warm, and impervious to spear and arrow. There could be no better armor.
Meleager's uncles are enraged. Such a prize should not go to a woman! If Meleager doesn't want it for
