Who Is Atalanta A Hero

Theseus’s slaying of the mighty Minotaur mutes the accounts of his treatment of Ariadne that may differ from Hamilton’s. Would a female still be acknowledged as heroic if she abandoned a man who helped her? For example in Atalanta’s Greek myth, Atalanta avoids romance at all cost and this seems to show that she breaks free from the stereotype that woman must find love to become a hero. Atalanta imposes a condition on men wanting to marry her,
“As a way of disposing of them [men] easily and agreeably she declared that she would marry whoever could beat her in a footrace, knowing well that there was no such man alive. She had a delightful time. Fleet-footed young men were always arriving to race with her and she always outran them” (Hamilton, “Atalanta” 182). This all changes when the Greek Goddess Aphrodite gives a young man three golden apples that
According to Hamilton, “He knew he was not as good a runner as she, but he had a plan. By the favor of Aphrodite, always on the lookout to subdue wild young maidens who despised love, this ingenious young man, whose name was either Melanion (Milanion) or Hippomenes, got possession of three wondrous apples, all of pure gold, beautiful as those that grew in the garden of the Hesperides. No one alive could see them and not want them (Atalanta” 182). The man uses these three apples during the race to beat Atalanta and successfully claims her as his wife. This forces Atalanta into an uncomfortable role that she has always tried to avoid. Atalanta’s aptitude as a hunter outperformed the skills of men. Therefore, the character of Atalanta is unable to get far--a female must be a mother or wife--she can’t be two-faceted, or it disrupts the gender ranking