grain and fruit, leaves and
flowers. When the furrows are reaped, when the grain has been gathered,
when the dark season comes, Persephone goes from her mother, and going
down into the dark places, she sits beside her mighty lord Aidoneus and
upon his throne. Not sorrowful is she there; she sits with head
unbowed, for she knows herself to be a mighty queen. She has joy, too,
knowing of the seasons when she may walk with Demeter, her mother, on
the wide places of the earth, through fields of flowers and fruit and
ripening grain.

Such was the story that Orpheus told--Orpheus who knew the histories of
the gods.

A day came when the heroes, on their way back from a journey they had
made with the Lemnian maidens, called out to Heracles upon the Argo.
Then Heracles, standing on the prow of the ship, shouted angrily to
them. Terrible did he seem to the Lemnian maidens, and they ran off,
drawing the heroes with them. Heracles shouted to his comrades again,
saying that if they did not come aboard the Argo and make ready for the
voyage to Colchis, he would go ashore and carry them to the ship, and
force them again to take the oars in their hands.

Not all of what Heracles said did the Argonauts hear.

That evening the men were silent in Hypsipyle's hall, and it was
Atalanta, the maiden, who told the evening's story.

Atalanta's Race

There are two Atalantas, she said; she herself, the Huntress, and
another who is noted for her speed of foot and her delight in the
race--the daughter of Schoeneus, King of Boeotia, Atalanta of the Swift
Foot.

So proud was she of her swiftness that she made a vow to the gods that
none would be her husband except the youth who won past her in the
race. Youth after youth came and raced against her, but Atalanta, who
grew fleeter and fleeter of foot, left each one of them far behind her.
The youths who came to the race were so many and the clamor they made
after defeat was so great, that her father made a law that, as he
thought, would lessen their number. The law that he made was that the
youth who came to race against Atalanta and who lost the race should
lose his life into the bargain. After that the youths who had care for
their lives stayed away from Boeotia.

Once there came a youth from a far part of Greece into the country that
Atalanta's father ruled over. Hippomenes was his name. He did not know
of the race, but having come into the city and seeing the crowd of
people, he went