Atlanta Barbieri (marble).  Eitherthe Greek original (1stcentury BC) or a Roman copy (2ndcentury AD)

Atlanta Barbieri (marble).  Eitherthe Greek original (1stcentury BC) or a Roman copy (2ndcentury AD).In Greek mythology, Atalanta wasthe daughter of King Iasus of Arcadia, and Clymene.  Her fatherwanted only sons, so he abandoned her in the forest on MountParthenion.  A she-bear found her and cared for her; later on, agroup of hunters found her and brought her up.Atalanta was an exceptionalhuntress, and a follower of Artemis.  She vowed to remain a virgin,and killed the centaurs Hylaeus and Rhoecus when they tried to rapeher.Eventually, Iasus acknowledged heras his daughter, and decided to marry her off.  After many refusals,Atalanta finally agreed to marry a man who could beat her in afootrace.  All those who tried lost, and were killed.Then Hippomenes, a protégé of thegoddess Aphrodite, arrived to try his luck.  Aphrodite had given himthree golden apples, and he threw them out during the race, one afterthe other, distracting Atalanta enough that he was able to beat her.However, the newlyweds forgot tothank Aphrodite, who took revenge by turning them into lions.  It wasbelieved at that time that lions could only mate with leopards, andnot with each other.  Another story says that Zeus turned them intolions because they had sex in one of his temples; in another version,Artemis turned them into bears, furious at losing Atalanta. -- source link

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