Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.9.2: Atalanta wrestles with Peleus and races her suitors

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.9.2: Atalanta wrestles with Peleus and races her suitors

1st/2nd century CE

Mythography

Literary source

At 1.8.2-3 and 1.9.16 Pseudo-Apollodorus himself calls Atalanta a daughter of Schoeneus rather Iasus, but such inconsistencies are not uncommon in his work: see Michels 2023, 114, who also provides a detailed discussion of the author and his work (though despite what the title may suggest, she does not comment on this passage, as her numbering system is different).

Lycurgus had sons, Ancaeus, Epochus, Amphidamas, and Iasus, by Cleophyle or Eurynome. And Amphidamas had a son Melanion and a daughter Antimache, whom Eurystheus married. And Iasus had a daughter Atalanta by Clymene, daughter of Minyas. This Atalanta was exposed by her father, because he desired male children; and a she bear came often and gave her suck, till hunters found her and brought her up among themselves. Grown to womanhood, Atalanta kept herself a virgin, and hunting in the wilderness she remained always under arms. The centaurs Rhoecus and Hylaeus tried to force her, but were shot down and killed by her. She went moreover with the chiefs to hunt the Calydonian boar, and at the games held in honor of Pelias she wrestled with Peleus and won. Afterwards she discovered her parents, but when her father would have persuaded her to wed, she went away to a place that might serve as a racecourse, and, having planted a stake three cubits high in the middle of it, she caused her wooers to race before her from there, and ran herself in arms; and if the wooer was caught up, his due was death on the spot, and if he was not caught up, his due was marriage. When many had already perished, Melanion came to run for love of her, bringing golden apples from Aphrodite, and being pursued he threw them down, and she, picking up the dropped fruit, was beaten in the race. So Melanion married her. And once on a time it is said that out hunting they entered into the precinct of Zeus, and there taking their fill of love were changed into lions. But Hesiod and some others have said that Atalanta was not a daughter of Iasus, but of Schoeneus; and Euripides says that she was a daughter of Maenalus, and that her husband was not Melanion but Hippomenes. And by Melanion, or Ares, Atalanta had a son Parthenopaeus, who went to the war against Thebes.

James G. Fraser, Apollodorus, The Library, vol. 1, Books 1-3.9 (= Loeb Classical Library; 121), Cambridge, MA 1921.

Λυκούργου δὲ καὶ Κλεοφύλης ἢ Εὐρυνόμης Ἀγκαῖος καὶ Ἔποχος καὶ Ἀμφιδάμας καὶ Ἴασος. Ἀμφιδάμαντος δὲ Μελανίων καὶ θυγάτηρ Ἀντιμάχη, ἣν Εὐρυσθεὺς ἔγημεν. Ἰάσου δὲ καὶ Κλυμένης τῆς Μινύου Ἀταλάντη ἐγένετο. ταύτης ὁ πατὴρ ἀρρένων παίδων ἐπιθυμῶν ἐξέθηκεν αὐτήν, ἄρκτος δὲ φοιτῶσα πολλάκις θηλὴν ἐδίδου, μέχρις οὗ εὑρόντες κυνηγοὶ παρ᾽ ἑαυτοῖς ἀνέτρεφον. τελεία δὲ Ἀταλάντη γενομένη παρθένον ἑαυτὴν ἐφύλαττε, καὶ θηρεύουσα ἐν ἐρημίᾳ καθωπλισμένη διετέλει. βιάζεσθαι δὲ αὐτὴν ἐπιχειροῦντες Κένταυροι Ῥοῖκός τε καὶ Ὑλαῖος κατατοξευθέντες ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς ἀπέθανον. παρεγένετο δὲ μετὰ τῶν ἀριστέων καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν Καλυδώνιον κάπρον, καὶ ἐν τῷ ἐπὶ Πελίᾳ τεθέντι ἀγῶνι ἐπάλαισε Πηλεῖ καὶ ἐνίκησεν. ἀνευροῦσα δὲ ὕστερον τοὺς γονέας, ὡς ὁ πατὴρ γαμεῖν αὐτὴν ἔπειθεν ἀπιοῦσα εἰς σταδιαῖον τόπον καὶ πήξασα μέσον σκόλοπα τρίπηχυν, ἐντεῦθεν τῶν μνηστευομένων τοὺς δρόμους προϊεῖσα ἐτρόχαζε καθωπλισμένη: καὶ καταληφθέντι μὲν αὐτοῦ θάνατος ὠφείλετο, μὴ καταληφθέντι δὲ γάμος. ἤδη δὲ πολλῶν ἀπολομένων Μελανίων αὐτῆς ἐρασθεὶς ἧκεν ἐπὶ τὸν δρόμον, χρύσεα μῆλα κομίζων παρ᾽ Ἀφροδίτης, καὶ διωκόμενος ταῦτα ἔρριπτεν. ἡ δὲ ἀναιρουμένη τὰ ῥιπτόμενα τὸν δρόμον ἐνικήθη. ἔγημεν οὖν αὐτὴν Μελανίων. καί ποτε λέγεται θηρεύοντας αὐτοὺς εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὸ τέμενος Διός, κἀκεῖ συνουσιάζοντας εἰς λέοντας ἀλλαγῆναι. Ἡσίοδος δὲ καί τινες ἕτεροι τὴν Ἀταλάντην οὐκ Ἰάσου ἀλλὰ Σχοινέως εἶπον, Εὐριπίδης δὲ Μαινάλου, καὶ τὸν γήμαντα αὐτὴν οὐ Μελανίωνα ἀλλὰ Ἱππομένην. ἐγέννησε δὲ ἐκ Μελανίωνος Ἀταλάντη ἢ Ἄρεος Παρθενοπαῖον, ὃς ἐπὶ Θήβας ἐστρατεύσατο.

James G. Fraser (ed.), Apollodorus, The Library, vol. 1, Books 1-3.9 (= Loeb Classical Library; 121), Cambridge, MA 1921.

Michels, J.A. (2023), Agenorid Myth in the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus. A Philological Commentary of Bibl. III.1–56 and a Study into the Composition and Organization of the Handbook (Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 402), Berlin.