Atalanta and the Golden Apples

In honor of my sweetie who loves to run, I decided to learn the story of Atalanta and the Golden Apples.

Atalanta and the Golden Apples

Atalanta was left in the woods to die when she was a baby. The king wanted nothing to do with a female child, but a she bear found her squalling in the forest and took care to nurse and feed Atalanta for many years. When Atalanta was still a child, a band of hunters found her and took her in from the wild. They taught her to hunt and she proved to be a swift and cunning hunter. She grew to love running wild in the forests and developed a keen eye for game. Her arrows sang true and she clearly became the best hunter in the group. News of Atalanta’s abilities spread after a particularly dangerous wild boar hunt.
Atalanta’s father, the king, discovered that the wild huntress of the forest was none other than his own true daughter and the king and queen were reunited with her. They were very proud of her but her father felt that it was vital for the young woman to marry. Atalanta loved the freedom of the forest and did not wish to be married to anyone, but her father pleaded with her to marry until finally she agreed to marry the man who could beat her in a foot race. Of course, she stipulated that any one who tried and lost would be executed. This cut her list of suitors down quite a bit but, there were men who tried to race Atalanta and were executed for their troubles.
A young man named Hippomenes saw Atalanta and his heart burst at the sight of her. He could not imagine a love so deep and sincere, but here it was thundering away deep inside himself and it was all for Atalanta. Hippomenes knew he could not run as fast as Atalanta and could never win the race without using his intellect. So he sought help from the gods. Since this was a matter of love, he called upon the goddess of love to help him. Venus could see that this golden haired man was true to his soul in feeling love for Atalanta and she decide to help him. Venus gave him three golden apples and told him how he could win the race.
When Hippomenes approached Atalanta and asked to be her husband she looked at his golden air and beautiful strength and sighing told him that he would have to race her just as all the others had raced her. Atalanta was conflicted because Hippomenes was tender and beautiful. Even though she fell in love with him, she longed for the forest and the freedom of the hunt.
On the day of the race, Atalanta stood ready and Hippomenes, holding his three golden apples prepared himself at the starting line. When the race began, Atalanta quickly overtook Hippomenes running with swiftness and agility. Hippomenes took the first apple and threw it up ahead of Atalanta and a little to the side. Atalanta was so intrigued that she stopped and ran over to pick up the golden apple. The apple was the most compelling thing she ever saw. Hippomenes made a mighty dash and overtook Atalanta but soon she ran past him again, so again he threw a golden apple up in front of Atalanta and off to one side. This time he threw the second apple farther off the track and when Atalanta stopped to pick it up, he overtook her a second time. Soon Atalanta passed Hippomenes again and he threw the third golden apple in front of her. This time. He threw it so far off the track that Atalanta had to sprint into a grassy field to find it. Hippomenes overtook Atalanta a third time but she rapidly ran back to the track and began to catch up to him. This time though, the finish line was in sight and Hippomenes willed his love for Atalanta into his legs and lungs and pushed himself over the finish line just one step ahead of Atalanta.
Venus watched the race and knowing that Atalanta wanted both love and freedom, turned them into lions. Hippomenes with his golden main and Atalanta lived together hunting freely and loving deeply for the rest of their days.


These are the Roman names for these characters. If you choose to go Greek, Atalanta becomes Atlanta and Hippomenes becomes Melonion. The Greek version of the story names Atlanta’s parents as the king Lasus and queen Clymene. It was of course the king who placed in her in the woods because he was so distraught at having a daughter instead of a son. I tried to find the Roman name for Atalanta’s father and found that except for the fact that he was the king his identity is actually in dispute. Some tellings of this story suggest that being turned into lions was a punishment for Hippomenes because he failed to thank the Goddess or a punishment for Atalanta because she continued to refuse to marry. I like a happy ending so I used the version that depicts lionhood as the best of both worlds.

Arrow To the Son

This is another older quilt. It is called Arrow to the son after a native American story about a fatherless boy who is ridiculed for not having a father. He goes to a shaman who tells him that his father is the Sun. The shaman fashions the boy into an arrow and shoots him into the sun. When he arrives, his father is reluctant to claim him and he forces the boy to go through several trials. I don't remember each trial, he fought the elements. One fierce battle was with hornets. After the boy proves himself he changes into a rainbow reflecting all the light of the sun.
You can see the rainbows in the quilt and arrow up in the left hand corner. I put a Seminole pattern on the top and the bottom and the squares are, of course, Amish shadows.

Here is another unfinished piece. I am working out finding some kind of beauty in the discordance that screams out from this broken pattern. This is a shocking example of what can happen when you take the most visually satisfying pattern. (the one you see below) and break it apart. I call this Shattered Stars and it will become some sort of tribute to the men I used to work with in the mental health system. I have a third one made and plan on doing 4 all together. they will go together into some kind of wall hanging.


















This is what I am working on right now I will upload more pictures as I get more done.

This is also one of my earliest quilts. I love this one. It took me 2 years to make because much of it is appliquéd. The Celtic knot work was made by appliquéing long tubes of material. This quilt hangs on the ceiling in our bedroom. I call it Cosmic Creation. Each one of the Mariners Compasses is different. I hand quilted the piece with metallic thread. I hope the metallic threads are better these days because this thread kept on breaking and fraying on me. I made back in the 1990's probably 1993 or 1994. This is the quilt that reminds me that properly, quilts need to be on a bed or hanging up because I had this one folded up for a couple of years and now after being hung up for about 10 years, I can still see the place in it where I folded it to store it. I don't think anyone else notices the crease.

This quilt uses a storm at sea pattern. It is the first quilt I ever made. I love the cloth that I had for it but I think it needs to be bigger and shaped like a square so that the wave like pattern of the storm could be seen better. I started out being fascinated by the mariners compass designs and so I put that into this one too. I think I made this one in 1990 or 1991.

Here is a retelling of the story of Mother Holda

Here is a fairy tale called Mother Holda about 2 girls who are stepsisters.

One is sweet and good but is forced to do all the work or be beaten mercilessly by her stepmother. The other is lazy and cruel but she gets away with being idol and unhelpful because she is the mother’s own true child and this is the stuff of fairy tales.
The good daughter is sent to a well to get water and as she must always be diligent, she is busily spinning thread with a drop spindle while she walks to the well. As she lowers the bucket from the well into the well to collect the water, She suddenly pricks her finger with the spindle. It draws three drops of blood and the spindle falls into the well. This good daughter is quite distraught. She knows the beating waiting her for at home will be severe once her stepmother discovers the that she lost the spindle. In her moment of hopelessness, she throws herself into the depths of the well believing that death is preferable to the limitations her life has left her with.
The girl awakens and finds that not only is she not dead but she Is in a new world with a blue sky and green grass. In a daze, she stands up and dusts herself off and begins to wander through this new world. Quickly, a talking apple tree confronts the girl. Clearly, her expectations about the world and her relationship to it need to change.
The apple tree calls out, “ Pick me, pick me! My apples are heavy and they threaten to break my limbs. I fear I will fall apart!” So the girl shook the tree, she shook it until all the apples fell like sparkling rubies around her. Then she collected the apples and put them in a neat pile, perhaps someone with a wheelbarrow will come for them.
“Thank you!” cried out the gnarled tree, “You are a gem.”
The young girl walked on through this strange world and encountered a cow, the bovine called out to her, “Milk me, milk me! I am so full that I fear I will burst.” The girl picked up the bucket and milking stool that was nearby. She sat down by the cow and milked her. The milk flowed into the bucket like great strings of pearls glistening in the strange light of this underworld. The cow looked back toward the girl and mooed her contentment.
“Many thanks to you, sweet one.” The cow said, “You are a pearl.”
The girl set out again on her journey and she came to an oven filled with trays of biscuits which called out to her, “Take us out, take us out or we will surely burn.” Quickly the girl scooped up her skirt in her hands to use as a potholder and removed the golden brown biscuits from the oven. She set them on a rack to cool. “We thank you. You are more valuable to us then all the treasure in the kings coffers.”
Now the journey was given direction because the sweet girl saw in the distance smoke coming from a chimney and she soon arrived at a small cabin surrounded by a garden that was surrounded by a fence. A frightening old and ugly woman was bent over her plants in the garden. When she stood up and saw the girl she smiled with a mouth full of large white teeth that frightened the girl. But the old hag spoke kindly to the child and invited her into the garden. The lass explained that she was lost and needed help as she stepped through the gate. The gate was a large arbor that arched over her head and was brimming with roses and trumpet flowers.
“ You can stay with me for as long as you like.” Said the old woman. “I need someone to help me with my house keeping. Will you help me.?”
“Oh yes.” Explained the lass, she was relieved to have a place to stay in this strange underworld.
“Here is what you must do.” The woman explained how she expected the house to be cleaned, the floors to be scrubbed and the cobwebs swept away from every corner and then she said, “Now dear, this is very important, every morning you must make my bed and you must shake the mattress until the feathers fly, for I am Mother Holda and when the the feathers fly, it snows up in the land above.”
The girl did as she was told. She kept the house and made the bed shaking the mattress until the feather flew. Mother Holda was kind to her and she lived with her in happiness and contentment for quite a long time. As time works differently in the underworld, it is hard to know how long is long and how short is short but after a while, the girl spoke to Mother Holda.
“I know that you have been good to me and that this is a kind world compared to my own, but I miss my family and my village and the things that have been familiar to me since my birth. It is time for me to go home.”
Mother Holda was quite agreeable and told the girl to be well on journey. Mother Holda explained that all the girl needed to do was step through the gate under her arbor and she would immediately be in her own village.” As the girl stepped through the gate, Mother Holda said, “And now you shall get the reward for your service.”
One step, and she was under the gate. A second step and she was in a void dark and cold. She took her third step an found herself in her own village. The people who lived there were surprised to see her.
“We thought you were gone forever from this world. You went to the well and never came back.”
The girl began to explain about her journey and every time she spoke, gold, jewels and pearls came pouring out of her mouth. This was something amazing! The girls stepmother grabbed her up and took her home a extracted every detail from the girl. From the pricking of her finger and the lost spindle to leaving Mother Holda’s garden. Then the selfish woman took her lazy daughter by the arm.
“You will not be outdone by this false daughter! You are my own true daughter and you will bring back jewels and gold for me.” She dragged the cruel girl to the well, pricked her finger, threw the spindle into the well and then threw her own daughter into the well after the spindle!
The lazy girl awoke in the underworld and found things to be just as her sister had described. But when she came upon the apple tree yelling out, “Pick me, pick me! My apples are heavy and they threaten to break my limbs. I fear I will fall apart!”
The girl replied, “I should think not! One of your apples might fall on my head and hurt me.” And so the apples dried up an became consumed by worms.
When she passed by the cow, and the cow said, “Milk me, milk me! I am so full that I fear I will burst.”
She called back to the cow, “I should think not! You might just kick me.” A newt and a toad crawled out of the bucket and watched this self important young girl rush on toward Mother Holda’s house.
When she strode past the oven it cried out as before, “Take us out, take us out or we will surely burn.”
“I should think not! I might get burned myself.” The girl marched on but the biscuits turned to sticky tar in the oven. Finally she came to Mother Holda”s house. Mother Holda was working in her garden just as was when the industrious sister first saw her.
The lazy girl struck the same deal with Mother Holda, promising to clean her house and shake the bed until feathers flew. One the first day the girl worked hard, thinking of the reward she would get. On the second day she was much less careful with the chores and when she made the bed she did not shake it hard to make the feathers fly. On the third day, she barely did any work at all.
“My dear child,” said Mother Holda, “ you have worked for me long enough, I am ready to send you home.”
The lazy girl was delighted for now she would get her reward and gold and gems would come out of her mouth whenever she spoke. She happily went to the gate.
Mother Holda set her through the gate saying, “And now you shall get the reward for your service.”
Just like her sister before her, the girl took three steps and arrived home in her own village. She was quickly surrounded by the townspeople asking questions about her journey. When she opened her mouth to speak with pride about her bravery and perseverance in the underworld, out of her mouth came worms and newts and toads and sticky tar.
From that day forward no one would go near the girl and she died alone and unhappy. But the good, hard working and industrious lass was sought out far and wide.
And she lived a long and prosperous life.

Quilts and Fairy tales

Reading my families blogs is so much fun that I thought I would make an attempt to return the favor and keep in touch.