Classical Mythology

(^612) THE GREEK SAGAS: GREEK LOCAL LEGENDS
From all this we can conclude that several legends have been conflated
around Meleager and Atalanta, whose myths were originally separate. Ovid cre-
ated a unified narrative from these different elements.
THE ARCADIAN ATALANTA
Atalanta, daughter of the Boeotian Schoeneus, is easily confused with Atalanta,
daughter of the Arcadian lasus. The latter also is a virgin huntress who joins in
the Calydonian boar hunt and the Argonauts' expedition. As a baby she was ex-
posed by her father and nurtured by a bear that suckled her until some hunters
found her and brought her up. Grown up, she was recognized by her father, but
she refused to let him give her in marriage unless her suitor could beat her in a
footrace. Those who lost were executed. After many young men had died in the
attempt, Milanion (also called Hippomenes) raced her. He had three golden ap-
ples given him by Aphrodite. These he dropped one by one during the race so
as to delay Atalanta. So he won the race and his wife, but in their impatience to
lie together they made love in a sacred place (a precinct of either Zeus or Cy-
bele), and for this sacrilege they were turned into a lion and lioness.
CORINTH
The Corinthian poet Eumelos identified the Homeric "Ephyra" with Corinth.
Homer (Iliad 6. 152-159) says:
There is a city, Ephyra, in a corner of horse-rearing Argos, and there lived Sisy-
phus, who was the most cunning of men, Sisyphus, son of Aeolus. He was fa-
ther to Glaucus, and Glaucus was father to virtuous Bellerophon, to whom the
gods gave beauty and lovely manliness. But Proetus devised evil against him in
his heart and drove him out from the people of Argos, since Bellerophon was a
better man than he. For Zeus had made him subject to Proetus.
Originally Ephyra was no more than a minor city in the kingdom of Argos
(which includes Tiryns, normally given as the city ruled by Proetus), and its
rulers, Sisyphus and his grandson Bellerophon, were minor chieftains subject to
the king of Argos. By identifying Ephyra with Corinth, Eumelos magnified the
status of the city and of its rulers. According to him, Sisyphus became the king
of Corinth (which had been founded by the son of Helius, Aeëtes) after Medea
left. Others make Sisyphus the founder of Corinth.
SISYPHUS
Sisyphus, a son of Aeolus and brother of Salmoneus, Cretheus, and Athamas, came
from Thessaly to Ephyra. Ino, the wife of his brother Athamas, leaped into the sea
with her child Melicertes and became the sea-goddess Leucothea, while her child