Melanion
Arcadian hunter who won Atalanta in a footrace by using golden apples given by Aphrodite.
The Legend of Melanion
Melanion (also called Hippomenes in Boeotian tradition) was the Arcadian hunter who succeeded in winning Atalanta's hand by the stratagem of the golden apples. Atalanta had set a condition for her marriage: any suitor must outrace her, and those who lost would be killed. Many young men had already died in the attempt. Melanion prayed to Aphrodite, who provided him with three golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides. During the race he rolled the apples one by one in Atalanta's path; each time she stopped to pick one up, he gained ground. On the third apple, he surged past and won. The two were later transformed into lions — either by Cybele for desecrating her sanctuary, or by Zeus. The distinction between Melanion and Hippomenes appears to reflect different regional versions of the same myth, with Arcadian sources preferring Melanion and Boeotian or Megarian sources preferring Hippomenes.
Parents
Amphidamas (father, in some traditions)
Children
Parthenopaeus (by Atalanta, in some traditions)
Symbols
Fun Fact
The three golden apples Melanion used to win Atalanta gave rise to a proverbial Greek expression for a clever distraction — "throwing the apple" — which survived into Byzantine rhetoric.
Explore Further
Hippomenes
🗡 heroNone recorded
Suitor who defeated Atalanta in a footrace using three golden apples from Aphrodite
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.
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
🗡 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.
Arcas
🗡 heroKingship, hunting, Arcadia
Eponymous founder and king of Arcadia who was nearly tricked into eating his own transformed mother
Eurytion
🗡 heroHunting, archery
Argonaut and skilled hunter who later participated in the Calydonian Boar Hunt
Peleus
🗡 heroheroism
King of Phthia, Argonaut, and father of Achilles who wrestled the shape-shifting sea goddess Thetis to win her as his bride.
Triptolemus
🗡 heroBearer of agriculture to humanity
Triptolemus was the young prince of Eleusis whom Demeter taught the art of agriculture and sent in a flying chariot to spread grain cultivation across the earth.
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.
Phrixus
🗡 herosurvival
Son of Athamas who rode the golden ram to Colchis, sacrificed it, and gave its fleece to King Aeetes.
Hyas
🗡 heroHunting, grief, stars
Hunter whose death from a lion or boar caused such grief in his sisters that they were transformed into the Hyades star cluster
Butes
🗡 heroBeekeeping, Resistance, Sirens
Argonaut and Athenian hero who alone leaped toward the Sirens and was saved by Aphrodite.