Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/181

 ATALANTA. 149 one unsuccessful suitor. For Atalanta, averse to marriage, had proclaimed that her hand should only be won by the competitor who could surpass her in running : all who tried and failed were condemned to die, and many were the persons to whom her beauty and swiftness, alike unparalleled, had proved fatal. At length Meilanion, who had vainly tried to win her affections by assiduous services in her hunting excursions, ventured to enter the perilous lists. Aware that he could not hope to outrun her except by stratagem, he had obtained by the kindness of Aphro- dite, three golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides, which he successively let fall near to her while engaged in the race. The maiden could not resist the temptation of picking them up, and was thus overcome : she became the wife of Mei- lanion and the mother of the Arcadian Parthenopoeus, one of the seven chiefs who perished in the siege of Thebes. 1 1 Respecting the varieties in this interesting story, see Apollod. iii. 9, 2 ; Hygin. f. 185; Ovid, Metam. x. 560-700; Propert. i. 1,20; ^Elian, V. H xiii. i. Mei/laviwvof au^povearepof. Aristoplmn. Lysistrat 786 and Schol In the ancient representation on the chest of Kypselus (Paus. v. 19, l) f Meilanion was exhibited standing near Atalanta, who was holding a fawn. no match or competition in running was indicated. There is great discrepancy in the naming and patronymic description of the parties in the story. Three different persons are announced as fathers of Atalanta, Schrcneus, Jasus and Msenalos ; the successful lover in Ovid (and seemingly in Euripides also) is called Hippomenes, not Meilanion. In the Hesiodic poems Atalanta was daughter of Schceneus ; Hellanikus called her daughter of Jasus. See Apollodor. I.e.; Kallimach. Hymn to Dian. 214, with the note of Spanheim ; Schol. Eurip. Phceniss. 150; Schol. Theocr. Idyll, iii. 40 ; also the ample commentary of Bachet de Meziriac, Sur les Epitres d'Ovidc, vol. i. p. 366. Servius (ad Virg. Eclog. vi. 61 ; jEneid, iii 113) calls Atalanta a native of Scyros. Both the ancient scholiasts (see Schol. Apoll. Rhod. i. 769) and the modern commentators, Spanheim and Heync, seek to escape this difficulty by supposing two Atalantas, an Arcadian and a Boeotian: assuming the principle of their conjecture to be admissible, they ought to suppose at least three. Certainly, if personages of the Grecian mythes are to be treated as his- torically real, and their adventures as so many exaggerated and miscolored facts, it will be necessary to repeat the process of multiplying entities to an infinite extent. And this is one among the many reasons for rejecting the fundamental supposition. But when we consider these personages as purely legendary, so that an