S2E3 - Atalanta the Warrior

The stories featured in Greaking Out are original adaptations of classic Greek myths.

This week's story features rampaging centaurs, estranged fathers, spiteful log burning, and shiny, shiny golden apples.

Gods and heroes' amazing feats.

Listen, and you'll see it's breaking

out.

Atlanta, the warrior princess.

There are a lot of great warrior heroes in Greek mythology.

Each of them are unique in their own way, but they all have one thing in common.

They're dudes.

Dude is slang for an individual, typically male.

The term originates from the late 1800s, when dude primarily referred to someone who dressed extremely fashionably, especially in a rural location.

A city slicker, if you will.

Thanks, Oracle.

Also, in Bengali, a language spoken in Bangladesh and parts of India, a dude is a hare on an elephant's butt.

Okay, well, thanks for that too.

What I'm getting at here is that there are not many female warriors in these stories.

There are plenty of female heroes in Greek mythology, but very few of them picked up a sword or a bow.

But there is one very notable exception.

She is Atlanta, the great warrior princess, and her story is amazing, but it starts out in a

capital of the state of Georgia in the USA.

It was an important location during both the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not Atlanta.

Atlanta.

It's a different Atlanta.

I wasn't finished.

Oh.

Sorry?

You never let me finish.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

The city of Atlanta was named for Martha Atalanta Lumpkin twice.

Her father was governor of Georgia and originally named the town Martha'sville in 1842, but three years later changed it to her middle name instead.

Atalanta has since been shortened to Atlanta, but she was, in fact, named after our Greek heroine.

Oh, that's interesting.

Thank you.

Anyway, the story of Atalanta is amazing, but like so many of these stories, starts out rough for our hero.

And I mean, very rough.

As in, abandoned as a baby, rough.

You see, Atalanta was daughter to a father who really wanted a son.

Her father, King Scenius, was so disappointed that his new baby was not a boy that he had her carried out into the Arcadian mountains and left there, in the middle of the woods, never to be remembered again.

This poor little baby was alone without food in the middle of the forest.

Can you imagine what would happen if a bear found her?

As it turns out, that's exactly what happened.

Except that the goddess Artemis took pity on the little girl and inspired this particular mama bear to raise the human child as one of her own.

So over the next few years, Atalanta grew into a strong, healthy, and furless bear cub.

She learned how to fight and survive in the forest like a bear, but even as a small child, she knew she was different.

A human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age is called a feral child.

There has only been one recorded case of a feral child adopted by bears.

In spring of 1663, a boy was found in the forests of Lithuania living with a Eurasian brown bear.

One day, Atlanta was discovered by a group of human hunters.

These hunters were kindly men who felt sorry for a little girl out in the wilderness alone.

Eventually, they decided to adopt Atlanta and raise her as one of their own.

Even though girls weren't normally hunters, Atlanta's skill in the forest made her a valuable part to any hunting party.

She was fast, strong, smart, and she knew the ways of the forest better than anyone.

Over the years, her family taught her how to hunt and trap, and before long, Atlanta was an expert with the bow, the spear, and the sword.

As she grew older, Atlanta became a follower of Artemis, who was more than pleased at how well things were turning out for the young baby she rescued in the forest.

One day, while Atlanta was hunting in the woods, she encountered two centaurs.

They were angry that a human was in their forest and a human girl at that.

They had set up an ambush for Atlanta, meaning to kill her when she came close, but they underestimated her.

She would not be defeated by anyone.

As the centaurs charged at at her, she notched an arrow in her bow.

They just laughed and galloped faster.

What could a girl do with a bow and arrow?

An instant later, they found out.

With a keen eye and a steady hand, Atlanta pulled the string on her bow back and shot the first centaur dead in his tracks.

A second later, she let a second arrow fly and the other centaur was down before he could even get close enough to touch her.

Lars Anderson is a Danish painter and archer who claims to hold the current world record for speed.

He is able to shoot 10 arrows in less than five seconds.

By the time Atalanta was a grown-up, she was kind of famous.

People were telling stories about her strength and bravery, not to mention her hunting skills.

And then she heard a rumor that the country of Caledonia had a boar problem.

A big boar problem.

You see, King Aeneas of Caledonia forgot to make an offering to Artemis when the crops began to bear fruit, so she decided to punish him by sending this really massive wild boar to ravage the farms and towns of his kingdom.

A typical wild boar is usually between three and six feet long and weighs up to 180 pounds.

In 2007, An 11-year-old Alabama boy took down a wild hog that weighed 1,051 pounds and was more than nine feet long.

Right, so picture a really mean hairy pig with big pointy teeth.

Now, picture it three times bigger.

See what I mean?

A big boar problem.

The king sent word throughout Caledonia and the neighboring kingdoms that he was looking for the greatest hunters in the land to help save his people from this terrible monster.

He even appointed his son Meleager to organize the hunting party.

Naturally, Atlanta responded to the call.

When she knelt before Meleager and offered her services, the prince was immediately fascinated by her.

Who was this woman in armor before him?

Sure, the legends of the huntress from Arcadia were common knowledge by now, but Meleager had thought it was a myth.

As you probably know, in ancient Greece, women weren't often hunters.

He wanted to know everything about her.

But, of course, the war problem had to be solved first.

Now, Meleager was no slouch with a bow bow and arrow either.

He was a hero in his own right.

In addition to being the son of a king, he had had heroic adventures of his own and he had a little bit of magic on his side too.

You see, when Meleger was a newborn, he was sickly and weak and on the verge of death.

The Moirai, the fates, actually visited the baby themselves and predicted that he wouldn't live very long.

He would only stay alive until a particular piece of wood currently burning in the family hearth was consumed by fire.

Meleeger's mother, Althea,

actually overheard the fates as they made this decree.

She was pretending to be sleeping.

And she quickly snatched the log from the fireplace and hid it away.

This made Meleager all but invincible.

The Moirai were the three goddesses of destiny in Greek mythology.

As goddesses of fate, They spun the thread of life for each mortal child and controlled the life and destiny of everyone.

Having Atalanta on the hunt turned out to be kind of a problem for Meleeger.

There were a lot of famous warriors on this journey, even Meleager's own uncles, and some of them were insulted by the presence of a woman in their group because they were the worst.

That insult turned to embarrassment when Atlanta was the first to find the tracks of the beast, and then fury when they saw her switch seamlessly between bow and arrow and spear.

It was clear that she was an expert hunter and better better than most of them, and this made a number of the men nervous, angry, and embarrassed.

To his credit, Meleger was not one of them.

No matter how much they complained, he refused to change his mind about allowing Atlanta on the hunt.

He thought Atlanta was amazing.

He was her biggest fan.

If he could have worn an Atlanta jersey and held up a sign that said, Atlanta is the goat, he'd have done it, no matter how weird it would have looked on an ancient Greek boar hunt.

And when it turned out to be her spear that first struck the giant boar, he cheered the loudest.

A goat is a member of the animal family Bovidae in the subfamily Caprinae.

No, no, no, no, Oracle, we're using goat here as an abbreviation for the...

The abbreviation goat is short for greatest of all time.

Yes, yes, it is.

So there was a long battle with the giant boar with many of the warriors unable to even pierce the thick hide of the beast.

But Atalanta didn't yield.

She fought side by side with Meleager and his uncles until finally, Meleager's sword brought the massive animal down.

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Now, the prize of the hunt was the thick hide and razor-sharp tusks of the Caledonian boar.

By right, they went to Meleeager because it was his sword that killed the beast.

But Meleager knew that it was really Atalanta who deserved the credit, and he decided to give the prize to her.

And this became a whole thing.

You see, Meleager's uncles were offended.

They still weren't happy about a woman besting them in the hunt, so they were really upset when she got credit for the kill.

They took the hide from Adelanta for themselves, saying that if Meleager didn't want it, they should get to keep it because they were royalty.

Now you might have expected Adelanta to fight for the prize, but she wasn't interested in fighting some old men over some skin and bones.

Maybe she knew that the real prize was winning the hunt, or maybe she felt bad for Meleeager, but either way, she was prepared to let it go.

But Meleeager was not.

He just thought it was so unfair.

He was furious with his uncles for trying to deny her the victory.

There was an argument that led to a fight that didn't end until Meleager had killed both of his uncles.

This was devastating to Meleager's mom, Althea.

She was so upset with Meleager for killing her brothers that she took the log from its hiding place and burned it in the kitchen fire.

And as the fates predicted, Meleager died.

on the spot.

Technically speaking, wood itself does not burn.

The fuel for the fire is not the wood itself.

It is actually the gases that are released from the wood's surface when the wood is heated.

Atlanta was very sad.

Meleager had been her friend, and maybe they could have been more, but she'd never wanted him to die for her.

It made her re-examine her life.

She decided to seek the advice of an oracle for guidance about her life and her future.

This oracle told her that she was blessed by the gods and that she would one day be royalty, but that she should never, ever marry.

The oracle was very big on this point.

This was fine with Atlanta.

She didn't need a husband.

She was doing fine on her own.

Interestingly enough, as she was leaving the oracle, Atlanta ran into none other than the hero Jason, who was putting together an all-star crew of warriors to sail aboard his ship, the Argo.

Naturally, Atalanta was interested.

Now, some say Jason welcomed her as a fellow warrior.

Others say she jumped on board the Argo just as they sailed off, leaving no time for anyone to say she couldn't come.

Either way, she had some great adventures.

Greaking Out, Season 1, Episode 1, tells the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece.

Jason assembled a crew of the finest sailors and warriors in all of Greece to help him on his quest to find a magical sheepskin and regain his throne from his evil uncle.

The Oracle is right.

You can hear all about the feats of the crew of the Argo in our other episode.

Here, I'll just say it was

legendary.

So eventually, when Jason returned with his warriors from this voyage and claimed the throne from his uncle, the former king fell ill and died.

In a sign of goodwill, Jason decided to honor his uncle with a series of athletic games at his funeral.

It was really more like a celebration of life than a funeral, I guess, because there were wrestling matches.

In ancient greek culture heroes get funeral contests a series of games to celebrate their lives this is how the olympics got their start the great warrior peleus was undefeated all the way through the tournament until he went up against you guessed it atlanta

the crowd laughed when they saw her entering the ring but pleleas did not Atlanta was fast and agile and a lot stronger than she looked.

She ducked and swerved away from the big warrior's attacks and, once she was sure he was good and tired, managed to tangle his legs and pin him quickly to the ground.

This was a big deal.

The warriors aboard Jason's ship may have known how fierce a fighter Atalanta was, but now the whole world knew.

She was once again the talk of the land, and word of her heroics spread far and wide.

Eventually, the stories of Atalanta made their way to Arcadia where King Scanius finally realized that this warrior woman raised in the forest may very well be the daughter he abandoned years ago.

Scanius sent word that he'd like to meet with Atalanta and she accepted.

Personally, I might hold a grudge over the whole left me in the woods as a baby thing, but Atalanta did not.

She had a forgiving nature and didn't let the little things get to her.

Or even the huge things, apparently.

She decided to give her father another chance so they could be a family.

And from that point forward, she was was Atlanta, daughter of King Scanius and treated as royalty.

No, this is not the end of the story.

Not quite.

You see, as the daughter of a king, Atlanta was supposed to get married.

That's kind of a thing.

It's part of the royalty gig.

And we all know how Atalanta felt about marriage.

According to the oracle, it was not for her.

But as a member of the royal family of Arcadia, she was supposed to entertain suitors, usually king's sons from neighboring kingdoms, and eventually choose a suitable husband.

It was what was expected.

After she and her father had yet another argument about this, a compromise was reached.

Atlanta would let it be known that she was not opposed to having a boyfriend and she would even be willing to take a husband, but this husband had to be able to beat her in competition.

To make it more friendly, they decided the competition would be a foot race.

Any suitor who beat Atlanta across the finish line would win her hand in marriage.

But until that time, she remained happily unattached.

Needless to say, nobody prevailed.

Even the fastest and strongest warriors were no match for the fleet-footed Atlanta.

She was happy and single for quite some time

until she met Hippomenes.

Now, Hippomenes was not a big warrior.

I mean, he was good with a sword and a shield, but he wasn't the biggest, or the strongest, or the fastest or the best looking or the

average.

This is an adjective that refers to a person or thing that is simply ordinary.

Okay, fine, let's go with average.

But he was smart enough to realize he would never beat Atlanta in a race.

Like many men in Arcadia, he had a major crush on Atlanta.

But while most of the suitors who came to the palace were boastful warrior bros who tried to woo her with their muscles and their power, Hippomenes was just happy to be himself and he truly loved Atlanta for who she was.

He loved that she was a mighty hunter.

He loved that she was a vicious warrior.

He even loved that she could easily beat him in a foot race.

The problem of course was that in order to marry her, Hippomenes actually had to beat her in a foot race and that was not going to happen without help.

Wisely, Hippomenes prayed to the goddess Aphrodite for guidance.

Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty, so she wasn't exactly thrilled with Atlanta's determination to remain unmarried.

She believed that love should conquer all, even mighty warriors, so she decided to help Hippomenes.

On the morning of the race, Aphrodite gave Hippomenes three golden apples, which he hid in his tunic, and a plan, which she whispered in his ear.

At the start of the race, Atalanta lined up next to the young man and was taken by his simple appearance.

He was not dressed as a prince or a warrior.

Some guys actually tried to run while wearing armor, believe it or not.

But he was handsome nonetheless.

He smiled at Atalanta and she couldn't help but smile back.

But now she had a race to run.

They were off at the sound of the horn and Atalanta immediately took the lead.

Hippomenes knew she would be fast, but he was a little surprised to be falling behind so early.

As the path took them into the woods, Hippomenes took an apple from his tunic and threw it ahead.

It landed on the grass beside the path and sparkled golden in the sun.

The golden apple is an element that appears in many myths, folk legends, and fairy tales.

But there are real golden delicious apples that have a pale white flesh and a balanced sweet tart flavor.

Atlanta saw the apple and immediately slowed down to get a look at it.

She'd never seen a golden apple before, and this one seemed magical.

Before she realized what she was doing, she stopped entirely, walked over to the apple, and picked it up to examine it.

She almost didn't notice Hippomenes when he sprinted past her at full speed.

Almost.

The sight of the young man overtaking her snapped Atalanta from her reverie and she took off after him, sprinting hard.

In just a short minute, she was back in the lead with her competitor breathing hard behind her, struggling to keep up.

Hippomenes then took took the second apple from his tunic and again threw it out in front of Atalanta.

Without even thinking, she stopped in her tracks and bent over to pick up the shiny apple, looking closely at its beautiful golden skin.

This time, Hippomenes tiptoed past her and he was a little more successful.

It took a while before Atalanta was able to shake free from the enchantment, and she shouted with frustration when she saw how far ahead Hippomenes had gotten.

But Atalanta was fast and determined, and she cruised past Hippomenes a third time, taking the lead again, this time with a determined focus on the road and the finish line ahead.

But Hippomenes had one more magical apple, and he threw this one in front of Atalanta, landing right on the path before her, so she had no choice but to look at it.

Once again, she fell under the spell of the fruit.

She slowed down to a stop almost as if she was hypnotized and bent over to pick up the apple.

Hippomenes was gasping for breath, but he ran past Atalanta as fast as he could.

He knew that this was his last and only chance to win her hand, so he forced himself to run harder and faster than he had ever run before.

It was only seconds later when he heard her footsteps behind him.

The spell didn't last long.

It seemed that nothing could truly slow down Atalanta, but the finish line was so close.

Hippomenes pushed himself to run as fast as his legs could go, and he finally made it across the finish line just before the warrior princess.

He had won.

Currently, the fastest man in history is a Jamaican sprinter named Usain Bolt with a world record time of 9.58 seconds.

The fastest woman in history is Florence Griffith Joyner with a world record time of 10.49 seconds less than one second slower.

Atlanta was shocked, but also not devastated.

I mean, if she had to marry someone, it might as well be someone smart like Hippomenes.

As it turned out, they made a pretty good couple.

Hippomenes adored his wife and never once tried to keep her away from a hunt or a battle if she was so inclined.

Together, they had a son.

Atalanta was so happy, she had all but forgotten the oracle's prophecy from years ago saying that she should never marry.

That was not wise.

Oracles are always right.

And that is your completely neutral, unbiased opinion?

Yes.

Uh-huh.

Anyway, Hippomenes was busy living his best life and had forgotten to properly pay tribute to Aphrodite.

As time passed, the goddess grew more and more angry at the happy couple.

After all, if it wasn't for those apples, Hippomenes never would have won the race, so she placed a curse on the husband and wife, tricking them into offending Zeus.

As we all know, Zeus can really overreact to even the smallest insult.

If there's one Olympian you don't want to offend, it's the guy with the thunderbolt.

But Zeus was also wise.

He saw through Aphrodite's ruse, and he remembered Atalanta's bravery and strength.

So instead of striking them down with thunderbolts, Zeus transformed Atalanta and Hippomenes into lions.

And Atalanta got to spend the rest of her days hunting in the forest with her husband by her side.

Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Greaking Out.

Stay tuned for next week's episode where we meet two fugitives on the run.

National Geographic Kids Greaking Out is written and hosted by Kenny Curtis, with Tori Kerr as the oracle of Wi-Fi, audio production and sound design by Scotty Beam.

Diane Klein is our expert researcher, and Perry Gripp composed our themes.

Emily Everhart is our production manager.