The story of Atalanta and Hippomenes is written by Ovid, a Roman poet who lived from 43BC to 17AD as part of his epic masterpiece, The Metamorphoses. This story—just as the majority of The Metamorphoses—is like a Russian matryoshka doll set in that it is a story enclosed within another story which is told as part of another story. Book X, of which this story is a part, begins with Orpheus who while mourning over the loss of his wife (X. 1-85), goes to a grove where Cyparissus weeps forever because he killed a stag sacred to the nymphs and has become a cypress, the tree of mourning (X.86-142). There the grief-stricken singer tells stories of various loves and their outcomes. First, he tells of Ganymede and Hyacinthus (X.155-219) who become the cup-bearer of the gods and a flower because of the passions they arouse in Jupiter and Apollo. Then he tells the story of Cerastae and Propoetides who offend the gods and are turned by Jupiter into sacrificial bulls (Cerastae) and by Venus into prostitutes who literally harden into stone (Propeptides). Pygmalion (X.243-297), disgusted by the Propeptides, becomes celibate and creates his ideal wife out of marble; after his love is recognized and his masterful statue is brought to life by Venus. Myrrha (X.298- 502), a granddaughter of Pygmalion’s daughter Paphos, has an incestuous love for her father Cinyras, flees after the crime and is transformed into a myrrh tree as she gives birth to the attractive Adonis. This brings us to the story of Venus’ love for Adonis (X.503-739) which is filled mainly with the telling of the story of my focus, that of Hippomenes and Atalanta (X.560-707). Venus, having been struck by Cupid, falls in love with handsome Adonis. She joins in his hunting expedition, on which she tells him the story of Hippomenes and Atalanta as the two rest under a tree.

        The story begins with Atalanta who, though a young and very beautiful woman, fervently avoids marriage because of a prophecy that she will turn into an animal if she marries. Blessed with unusual speed and confident that she can beat anyone in a race, she says she will marry only the man who can defeat her in a race; however anyone who losses will be killed. Despite this consequence, many men, wooed by her elegance and beauty, race against her, but all come short and are put to death. One of the spectators, Hippomenes, disparages men foolish enough to enter such a race; then he sees Atalanta run and is both swooned by her allure and is panic-stricken that she might lose before he has a chance to race and potentially marry her. When Atalanta sees the youthful contender, she is torn between her love at first sight towards him and her reluctance to lose because of the prophecy.

        In this situation my passage of the story begins; Hippomenes, captivated by the beautiful Atalanta, is about to begin a race, in which he is clearly outmatched, literally for his life while Atalanta is torn between a foreboding prophecy and her affection to her challenger.

        As the story ends, Venus tells her listener, Adonis, that Hippomenes did not repay or even thank her for her help. Angered by this disrespect, Venus arouses Hippomenes’ desire for Atalanta while they are on a journey together. The only place for them to make love, however, is in a nearby temple. Their disgraceful act angers Cybele, the god to whom the temple was made for, and so she changes them into lions as a punishment. Thus, the prophecy is fulfilled and the metamorphosis of the story comes to pass.