(and Goddesses)

Atalanta

by Jennifer Saint

‘When Atalanta posted herself on the extreme right flank at some distance from her fellow-hunters,’ wrote Robert Graves in The Greek Myths, ‘two Centaurs ….. decided to ravish her, each in turn assisting the other. But as soon as they ran towards her, she shot them both down and went to hunt at Meleager’s side.’

Left by her parents to die on a hillside, Atalanta is rescued by a she-bear and raised with the cubs. Later, when the bear chooses a new mate, Atalanta becomes a devotee of the Goddess Artemis, the Huntress. On a promise never to marry – which is maybe another way of saying “remain a virgin”, Artemis gives her into the care of the Nymphs of Arcadia

‘From then, I lived for the days that Artemis would arrive in the grove, when she would beckon me out into the stillness of dawn with the bow in her hand.’

‘And before all our eyes, Callisto’s shuddering shoulders seemed to cave in, her body contorting …. her fingernails were lengthening into curved claws. Her arms bristled with dark fur and her sobs became growls.‘

Atalanta grows up to be the fastest, most athletic mortal woman in the world, and the best hunter, second only to Artemis herself. When she is fully grown, she kills two centaurs who try to rape her. The goddess then chooses her to be her champion and undertake a quest – to join the Argonauts in their bid to seize the Golden Fleece. Battling the prejudices of heroes like Heracles and Peleus, but supported by Meleager, Atalanta is accepted (if reluctantly) as a member of the crew. The voyage and the adventures of Jason are well known, so I won’t repeat them here. Suffice to say, there is the island with no men, the Harpies and the Clashing Rocks. On arrival in Colchis, the Argonauts steal the Fleece aided by the witch Medea, who joins them on the journey home.

‘I pulled his face to mine and I kissed him. It was nothing I had ever known before, nothing I had been allowed to know. A sunburst of colour, his hands tangled in my hair. A heat sweeping through me, his body pressed against mine.’

‘Artemis had done nothing to me. I imagined her, back in the forest, running with her dogs. She wasn’t watching me …. she would never have to know …..’

With Medea on board, things have already started to go wrong. Jason is obsessed with her. Atalanta has begun to question and interpret her vow of chastity, And since Meleager is already married, she sees no harm in having a bit of adulterous fun with him. Believing her quest fulfilled, she goes back to Arcadia and to the cool judgement of Artemis – who doesn’t see it that way at all.

‘The finishing line was in sight, the faces of the crowd a blur of screaming mouths, a delirious frenzyrged forwards again …. I could still win easily, I told myself ….’

Even if you know how the myth ends, I recommend reading the novel. Jennifer Saint puts a different spin on the original story, as she has done in previous novels about Ariadne and Elektra. There are unforgiving deities, wicked kings and fathers, all too human heroines and, here, that famous race with the Golden Apples. And it doesn’t end well for most of them.

As for Atalanta, it’s what you might call a bitter-sweet pill! She’s happy and that’s what matters.

‘The oracle warned that I would lose myself, but the opposite is true …. I am wild, I am free. I am Atalanta.’

If, like me, you enjoy reading the Greek Myths, Atalanta is a novel for you. The voyage of the Argo isn’t the way Robert Graves tells it in his novel The Golden Fleece, but it’s a lot of fun.

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