Читать книгу Artemis - Jean Shinoda Bolen - Страница 12

Stories often change with the telling and the point of view of the storyteller. In Greek mythology, there were two versions of Atalanta's origins as a famous hunter from either Arcadia (as told by Apollodorus) or Boetia (as told by Hesiod). In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Greek myths were assembled and retold in Latin verse. I describe Atalanta as being from Arcadia because it is in this version that we get the account of her birth and how she was abandoned and suckled by a bear.

Atalanta is also mentioned as wanting to enlist with Jason and the Argonauts on their search for the Golden Fleece. She is refused because her presence as a woman among men would be disruptive—the same argument that was used to keep women from serving in the military until recently. This didn't stop Atalanta, however, as told by classical scholar Robert Graves (The Golden Fleece, 1944). Graves describes how, as the Argo casts off, Atalanta jumps aboard and, invoking the protection of Artemis (for her virginity), joins the heroes. In another vignette, when two centaurs try to rape her, she kills them with her arrows.

I have taken liberties as a storyteller to combine elements from separate myths in which Atalanta is mentioned, adding some embellishments. For example, when I tell how the bear finds her, I incorporate Bernard Evslin's version of how she and Meleager meet (Heroes, Gods, and Monsters of the Greek Myths, 1968). I tell of her return to Arcadia after the hunt for the boar to provide continuity between the hunt and the footrace. Here is the story as I tell it.