Hippomenes
Suitor who defeated Atalanta in a footrace using three golden apples from Aphrodite
The Legend of Hippomenes
Hippomenes fell in love with the swift huntress Atalanta, who had declared she would only marry a man who could outrun her — and that any who failed would die. Many suitors had already perished. Hippomenes prayed to Aphrodite, who gave him three golden apples from her sacred garden. During the race, whenever Atalanta drew ahead, Hippomenes rolled an apple off the course. She could not resist their beauty and paused to retrieve each one, allowing Hippomenes to win by the narrowest of margins. They married, but in their passion they made love in a sacred precinct — either a temple of Zeus or Cybele. The offended deity transformed them both into lions, and in Greek belief, lions could not mate with each other, so they were separated forever.
Parents
Megareus (or Ares)
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Greeks believed lions could not mate with each other, making the transformation a permanent separation
Explore Further
Melanion
🗡 heroRacing, Love, Hunting
Arcadian hunter who won Atalanta in a footrace by using golden apples given by Aphrodite.
Atalanta
🗡 heroSwift-footed huntress
A heroine raised by bears who could outrun any mortal man. Atalanta joined the Argonauts, slew the Calydonian Boar, and would only marry a man who could beat her in a race.
Atalanta
🗡 heroThe virgin huntress who outran every suitor
The swift-footed huntress who drew first blood against the Calydonian Boar and was only beaten in a footrace by divine trickery.
Atalanta
🗡 herospeed, independence
The only woman among the Argonauts in some traditions, a virgin huntress raised by bears who could outrun any man and demanded a footrace as the price of marriage.
Peleus
🗡 heroheroism
King of Phthia, Argonaut, and father of Achilles who wrestled the shape-shifting sea goddess Thetis to win her as his bride.
Psyche
🗡 heroMortal whose love conquered a god
Psyche was a princess so beautiful that Aphrodite was jealous — she married Eros in darkness and lost him when she looked, then won him back through impossible labours.
Bellerophon
🗡 heroThe hero who tamed Pegasus
The Corinthian hero who tamed the winged horse Pegasus and slew the Chimera, but fell from heaven when he tried to reach Olympus.
Oenomaus
🗡 heroNone recorded
A king of Pisa who killed the suitors of his daughter Hippodamia in rigged chariot races until Pelops defeated him through trickery and divine favour
Cephalus and Procris
🗡 heroLovers destroyed by jealousy
Cephalus and Procris were devoted spouses whose mutual jealousy — tested by Eos and by a magic gift — led to Procris's accidental death.
Pentheus
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Thebes torn apart by his own mother for opposing the worship of Dionysus
Peleus
🗡 heroMortal who married a goddess
The king of Phthia who wrestled and won the sea-nymph Thetis, fathering Achilles — the greatest warrior of the Trojan War.
Pelops
🗡 herokingship
Son of Tantalus, restored to life by the gods with an ivory shoulder, who won his bride by cheating in a chariot race and cursed his line.