Context

The story of Atalanta and Hippomenes appears in the 10th book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. At the beginning of Book 10, the character Orpheus, after losing his wife Eurydice, sets up the rest of the book by singing multiple love songs that become the stories that follow. He sings of Adonis and Venus, and this story transitions into the next: Venus herself tells Adonis the story of Atalanta and Hippomenes, including the footrace between them. Since the story of Atalanta happens during Venus and Adonis’s story, it is ultimately followed by the death of Adonis.

Before Ovid included the story in the Metamorphoses, it was a well-known Greek myth. In the Greek version, Atalanta was devoted to Artemis, known as Diana in Roman mythology, the goddess of the hunt. Her father, wanting a son, abandoned her in the woods where she was saved and raised by a bear until it was killed by hunters, who took Atalanta in. In both stories, she is renowned for her strength and athleticism, participating in the Calydonian Boar Hunt in the Greek tradition. Some versions also associate her with the Argonauts, alongside famous Greek heroes like Orpheus, Hercules, and Jason. In Ovid’s retelling, she never participated in those events and avoided marriage because of a prophecy given to her by an oracle. 

Atalanta, the daughter of a high-status man, asks an oracle about her future. It warns her not to marry anyone or she will lose her life. She rejects all suitors and says they can only marry her if they beat her in a footrace. Death is the punishment for losing, so many suitors die. Hippomenes, a young man who is visiting the city, sees the race and thinks it is foolish until he sees Atalanta. He falls in love with her and begs Venus to help him win so he can marry her. While there are many retellings, some saying Atalanta didn’t love Hippomenes, Ovid’s version suggests she did love him and happily married him at the end of the story. Hippomenes uses three golden apples, given to him by Venus, to distract Atalanta in order to win the race and marry Atalanta. Unfortunately, Hippomenes forgets to properly honor Venus after she helped him, so she, feeling snubbed, causes the two to desecrate a sacred temple of a minor goddess, who turns them both into lions as punishment. This version stays relatively true to the original Greek myth, with slight changes at the beginning.