Atalanta Definition & Meaning

Origin of Atalanta

From Ancient Greek Αταλάντη (Atalantē, “balanced”), from ἀ- (a, “used to express unity”) + τάλαντον (talanton, “balanced”).

From Wiktionary

The golden apples, the gift of Aphrodite to Hippomenes before his race with Atalanta, were also plucked from the garden of the Hesperides.
Hippomenes, before starting, had obtained from Aphrodite three golden apples, which he dropped at intervals, and Atalanta, stopping to pick them up, fell behind.
Both subjects were intimately associated with the temple, for Atalanta had dedicated in it the face and tusks of the boar, which had been awarded to her as the first to wound it; and Telephus was the son of Heracles and the priestess Auge.
In 1900 the French school at Athens recovered more fragments of sculpture, including a head of Heracles and the torso and possibly the head of Atalanta, these last two of Parian marble.
A war broke out between the Calydonians and Curetes (led by Althaea's brothers) about the disposal of the head and skin, which Meleager awarded as a prize to Atalanta, who had inflicted the first wound; the brothers of Althaea lay in wait for Atalanta and robbed her of the spoils, but were slain by Meleager.

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