Question

Atalanta lets hippomemes win the footrace. Which best identifies the motivation behind this action

Answer 1

Atalanta was a runner faster than any man could ever be. As the poet Ovid said, she was as fast as she was beautiful. One day, an Oracle told her that marrying a man would be her doom.

To avoid such fate, Atalanta created a challenge that would prevent her from marrying: she would only marry a man capable of winning a footrace from her. If a man challenged her and lost, he would be executed.

Despite the execution penalty, many challenged Atalanta because of her beauty. Hippomenes saw the challenges and fell in love with her. Desperate for winning, Hippomenes prayed to Aphrodite, and the goddess of love heard his plea.

She said how Hippomenes could win the footrace and gave him three golden apples. The race began and Atalanta took the lead three times, but three times Hippomenes tossed the apples in Atalanta's path, and three times she stopped to pick them up because she was facinated for them. However, Aphrodite made the last golden apple especially heavy, and Hippomenes won the race.

They were happy and married, but Hippomenes forgot to thank the Aphrodite, and when the married couple dishonored Mother Earth because they slept in front of her shrine, the goddess of love incited Mother Earth to punish the couple, which she did, turning the couple in two lions.

In the end, marrying was indeed Atalanta's doom.

Therefore, Atalanta let Hippomenes win because she was facinated by the golden apples. We can say Atalanta forgot her principal mission because of her passions: her mission was to avoid marriage and her passions are represented by the golden apples. The same can be said of the challengers: Atalanta's beauty was their passion representation, and the execution penalty was their doom, much like Atalanta's marriage.