This book provides beautiful illustrations and a fun retelling that doesn't sugar-coat the mythology, but the narrative feels weird at the end. Aphrodite punishes the negligent Atalanta and her husband by turning them into lions, but it feels like a footnote to a story whose climax was Atalanta's pride being humbled in the race.
so-soIn this Greek myth, Princess Atalanta is left to on a mountainside because her father wanted a son, the gods send a bear to care for her. She grows into a great hunter and athlete and is reunited with her father. As she gets older, Atalanta has no use for the gods and gives them no credit. When she must run the most important race of her life, on which her future happiness rides, the gods intercede. Atalanta learns they will not be ignored.
Atalanta can “run as fast as the wind” and insists on running in the race the king sets up for her suitors. Atalanta ties with the winner and at least in the free to be you and me version decides to see the world before considering marriage and instead makes a friend. I loved Free to Be You and Me as a kid. #80skid #girlpower #borntorun #marchintothe70s
Atalanta's Race: A Greek Myth | 
