ATALANTA, a heroine, probably a by-form of Artemis, variously said to be daughter of Schoeneus of Boeotia or of Iasus and Clymene, of Arcadia. She was a renowned and swif t footed huntress. From her complex legend the following incidents are of interest : (1) She was exposed at birth, as her father wanted a son, but suckled by a she-bear (a beast connected with Artemis). (2) She took part in the Calydonian boar-hunt (see MELEAGER). (3) She offered to marry any one who could outrun her; those who lost were to be killed. Hippomenes (or Meilanion) was given three of the apples of the Hesperides (q.v.) by Aphrodite; when he dropped them, Atalanta stopped to pick them up, and so lost the race. Their son was Parthenopaeus, one of the Seven against Thebes. (4) She and her husband, proving ungrateful to Aphrodite, were led to profane a shrine with their loves, for which Cybele turned them into lions.