Atalanta is a conflicted young woman. She was abandoned in the forest as a baby and raised by a family of bears. She loves her home in the forest, but she finds herself increasingly drawn towards human civilization. She is determined to learn about her origins and find her birth parents. She soon becomes renowned for both her fierce prowess in battle, and her incredible beauty. Atalanta must learn to balance her wild nature with the ways of civilization if she is ever going to find her place in the world.
I had previously speculated that we might see the story Atalanta get adapted as a season of Live From Mount Olympus. Atalanta is one of the few Greek heroes who, it could be argued, got a happy ending. Put a pin in that bit for now. However, as we can see, my prediction turned out to be fairly on the money.
The most famous aspect of Atalanta’s story, of course, is how she challenged her suitors to defeat her in the foot race. This happens, of course, but not until the end of the season. To be fair, the race does occur later into the story of Atalanta. Still, I’m remind of how, back in season one, Perseus slaying Medusa took less time than you might expect. However, in another parallel to season one, this just serves to emphasize the aspects that many people tend to forget in retelling of Atalanta’s story. One such aspects is the role that Meleager plays in Atalanta’s story.
Who is this Meleager person? He was the prince of Calydon, and a member of the Argonauts. The Fates connected his life with a piece of firewood. It was prophesied that Meleager would die if the firewood ever burned. Meleager’s mother kept the firewood locked in a special box. The truly cultured among you will notice this is an early example of Chekhov‘s Gun. It is a literary device name for the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It comes from advice he gave to aspiring playwrights. He said, paraphrased, don’t introduce a gun in the first act of a play unless you intend for it to be fired in the last act of a play.
Each season of Live From Mount Olympus has always been a two-person story. Season one was Perseus and Andromeda, season two was Persephone and Demeter, and now we have Atalanta and Meleager. It is Atalanta’s slaying of the Calydonian Boar, and her relationship with Meleager, that gets the lion’s share of the attention in season three. Of course, season three does break the pattern slightly. Meleager dies slightly over halfway through the season. Even then, a big driver for Atalanta’s growth as a character is learning to come to terms with Meleager’s death.
Live From Mount Olympus thrives by filling in the gaps and spaces of the original myths. That remains very true in season three. We spend a lot of time getting to know Atalanta’s adoptive family of bears. In fact, we spend more time with the bears than we do with her human family. At times, I was a bit reminded of Tarzan. Then again…well, actually, I guess Enkidu from The Epic of Gilgamesh would be the original Tarzan. Atalanta is a respectable second, however. We also see that Atalanta feels remorse over all the suitors who are killed as a result of losing the foot race to her. In the original myth, this is kind of glossed over. Here, however, she reflects on how they all have family and friends who will mourn their deaths.
We also get a closer look at Hermes’ godscast. It was just a framing device in pervious seasons. Season three, by contrast, makes it feel more like Hermes is actually producing a podcast. There’s a few scenes where he interviews Artemis and Athena about their role in Atalanta’s story. They both banter a bit with Hermes, and those scenes are written quite well. It never comes across as forced or annoying, unlike certain other podcasts. That means you, Parcast. Getting back on track, I thought this was a nice addition to season three of Live From Mount Olympus.
The voice acting is as fantastic as ever. We see several of our leading voices returning to the spotlight. Joanne Hernandez, who played Persephone in season two, takes center stage as Atalanta. It was fun getting to hear her play a character who headstrong, aggressive, and just a tad cocky. However, she also wonderfully captures Atalanta’s more vulnerable side as well. Divine Garland, who played Perseus in season one, also makes a triumphant return as Meleager. He is tasked with going in the opposite direction of Joanne’s performance. But it should come has no surprise that he captures Meleager’s thoughtful and sensitive nature. He managed to capture that side of Perseus fairly well. I must also give praise to Libby King’s performance as Athena, and Christina Liberus’ performance as Artemis. And, of course, Andre De Shields was just as wonderful as ever as Hermes.
There’s a running theme throughout this season about nature vs. civilization, or put another way, chaos vs. order. Artemis is the representative for team nature, while Athena represents team civilization. I like that neither is portrayed as being better than the other. Artemis and Athena do have friendly competition over who will influence Atalanta more, but it never turns malicious. Artemis and Athena both gives valuable gifts and advice to Atalanta. So, I guess the message is that we’ve all got a little wild and a little civilized inside of us. The trick is to find a way to balance them.
Okay, now I know you’re all wondering this for a while. Just how does Live From Mount Olympus handle the ending of Atalanta’s myth? Well, first we should talk about how the foot race goes. True to the myth, Hippomenes wins the race using golden apples given to him by the goddess Aphrodite. He dedicates each apple to an aspect of Atalanta that he loves. So, she isn’t just intrigued by the apples being shiny. We also get to know Hippomenes before the race, and learn why he loves Atalanta so much. This was, I suspect, done to makes the whole marriage race thing more palatable to modern listeners. I also loved how the announcer guy made the race sound like a modern-day sporting event. It was a fun little touch.
The original myth ends with Atalanta and Hippomenes getting turned into lions after having sex in a temple dedicated to Rhea. This might not seem bad, given how much Atalanta loves the wilderness. However, the Ancient Greeks certainly wouldn’t have viewed it in a positive light. The Ancient Greeks had many strange ideas about sex. One of these was that lions could only have sex with leopards. Therefore, Atalanta and Hippomenes had been cursed to never be able to have sex again.
Obviously, you can’t do any of that in an audio drama aimed at kids. Still, there could be some potential workarounds. Perhaps have them simply kissing and laughing, though that could still come across as unintentionally suggestive, given the audio only medium. Perhaps, Live From Mount Olympus could put a positive spin on the curse. That is, Atalanta could finally be free of civilization, and can return to the wilderness she loves for good. That would, of course, go against the theme of balancing nature and civilization.
However, Live From Mount Olympus took another approach. Season three ends right after the foot race. They do pay some lip service to the original myth. Hippomenes remarks that Atalanta is fierce like a lioness. Also, this is all presented in present tense. So, from the perspective of the gods, Atalanta’s story has come to an end yet. This is certainly a shake-up compared to previous seasons.
I also wonder how this will impact future seasons going forwards. Jason and the Argonauts were all depicted as jerks to Atalanta. So, that rules them out. Theseus was also a jerk to Atalanta, so that rules him out. Atalanta is sometimes a member of the Argonauts, but Greek Mythology is often contradictory. That, and that bit about dumping Ariadne on an island. Hmm, maybe they could tell the story of Theseus, but from the perspective of Ariadne. She married Dionysus after Theseus dumped her, so, she got a happy ending. Maybe they could combine several of the myths about Athena to make a season about her. Dionysus has too much alcohol and sex in most of his myths to get his own season.
I want to make it clear, I’m not faulting Live From Mount Olympus for ending season three the way it did. Greek Mythology has all sorts of things in it that aren’t exactly kid-friendly. Inevitably, this was going to happen at some point. As with many things, it is the journey, not the destination, that truly matters. Season three of Live From Mount Olympus certainly gave me a wonderful journey.
It is with season three that Live From Mount Olympus has officially bowled a turkey. This season retold the story of Atalanta, and highlighted the bits that tend to get downplayed in most adaptations. I certainly hope that there is a fourth season on the way. I certainly can’t wait to see which Ancient Greek myth gets adapted next.
Well, that should do it from me for now. I will see your guys next time.
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