560'Perhaps you have heard of a woman who outdid swift men in a contest of running. 561That rumour was no tale: she did outdo them; 562nor could you say whether she was more outstanding for the glory of her feet or the blessing of her beauty. 564When she consulted the god about a husband, he said, "You have no need of a husband, Atalanta: flee the use of a husband! 566And yet you will not escape, and, living, you will lose yourself." 567Terrified by the god's oracle, she lives unmarried in the shady woods and violently drives off the pressing throng of suitors with a condition, and says, "I am not to be won unless first defeated in running.
570Compete with me on foot: a wife and marriage-bed will be given as prizes to the swift, death the price for the slow. 572Let that be the law of the contest." 573She indeed was pitiless: but (such is the power of beauty) a rash throng of suitors came to accept this law. 575Hippomenes had sat down as a spectator of the unequal race and had said, "Does anyone seek a wife through such great dangers?" 577and had condemned the young men's excessive love. 578When he saw her face and her body with its garment laid aside, a body like mine, or like yours if you were to become a woman, he was amazed, and raising his hands said, "Forgive me, you whom I just now blamed.
581I did not yet know the prize you were seeking." 582By praising he conceives a fire, and wishes that none of the young men may run faster, and fears it from jealousy. 584"But why is the fortune of this contest left untried by me?" 585he says; "the god himself helps the daring." 586While Hippomenes weighs such things within himself, the maiden flies with winged step. 588Though she seemed to the Aonian youth to go no less swiftly than a Scythian arrow, yet he admires her grace more; 590and the running itself creates grace. 591The breeze carries back the ankle-ribbons from her swift feet, and her hair is tossed over her ivory back, and the knee-bands with painted border that lay beneath the backs of her knees; 594and over her girlish whiteness her body had taken on a blush, just as when a purple awning over a white hall stains it with counterfeit shadows.
597While the stranger notes these things, the final turning-post is passed, and the victorious Atalanta is crowned with a festal garland. 599The defeated groan and pay the penalty according to the agreement. 600Yet not deterred by their fate, the young man stood in the middle and, his eyes fixed on the maiden, "Why do you seek an easy glory by defeating sluggards? 603Compete with me!" 603he says. 603"If fortune makes me the stronger, you will not be indignant at being beaten by so great a man: for my father is Megareus of Onchestus, his grandfather is Neptune, I am the great-grandson of the king of the waters, nor does my valour fall short of my birth; 607or if I am beaten, you will have, in defeating Hippomenes, a great and memorable name."
609As he says such things, Schoeneus' daughter looks at him with softened face, and wonders whether she would rather be defeated or win. 611And she says thus: "What god, hostile to the beautiful, wishes to destroy him and bids him seek this marriage at the risk of his dear life? 613I am not worth so much, in my own judgement. 613— Nor am I touched by his beauty (yet I could be touched by that too), but because he is still a boy: it is not he himself that moves me, but his age. 616What of the fact that he has courage and a mind unafraid of death? 617What of the fact that he is counted fourth in descent from the sea-god?
618What of the fact that he loves me and values marriage with me so highly that he would die if harsh fortune denied me to him? 620While you may, stranger, go away and leave this bloody bridal chamber: marriage with me is cruel. 621No woman would refuse to wed you, and you can be chosen by a wiser girl. 622— Yet why do I care about you, when so many have already been killed before? 624Let him see to it! 624Let him die, since he has not been warned by the slaughter of so many suitors and is driven to weariness of life. 625— Shall he die, then, because he wished to live with me, and suffer an undeserved death as the price of love?
628My victory will bring odium hard to bear. 629But the fault is not mine. 629If only you would give up, or, since you are mad, if only you were swifter! 631Ah! 631how maidenly a look there is in his boyish face! 632Ah! 632wretched Hippomenes, I wish you had never seen me! 633You were worthy to live. 633But if I were more fortunate, and the harsh fates did not deny me marriage, you would be the one man with whom I should wish to share a bed." 636She had spoken; 636and inexperienced, touched by Cupid for the first time, not knowing what she is doing, she loves and does not realise her love.
638Now the people and her father demand the usual race, when Neptune's descendant Hippomenes invokes me with anxious voice, and says, "Cytherea, I pray, stand by my daring and help the fires you have given." 642A kindly breeze carried his coaxing prayers down to me; 643and I was moved, I confess. 643Nor was help long delayed. 644There is a field, the natives call it by the name Tamasenus, the finest part of the Cyprian land, which the elders of old consecrated to me and ordered to be added as an endowment to my temples. 647In the middle of the field gleams a tree, its foliage tawny, its branches rustling with tawny gold.
649From here, as I happened to be coming, I was carrying three golden apples plucked with my own hand: and, visible to no one but him, I approached Hippomenes and taught him what use there was in them.