Atalante is asteroid #36 and oft the type C. Atalante was discovered by the German-French astronomer Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt in 1855, but named by the French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier. Atalante’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 2.75 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.30, a period of revolution of 1 663 days, and an inclination of 18.4 degrees.

Atalante is named after the heroine Atalántē (Ἀταλάντη) from Greek mythology. Different versions are known, beginning already with her parents. One version is from Arcadia, the parents are Klymene and Iasos, Atalántē (Ἀταλάντη) is known for the Calydonian boar hunt and for traveling with the Argonauts. The other version is from Boeotia, Atalántē (Ἀταλάντη) is the daughter of King Schoineus and known for a footrace, after which she broke her vow not to marry and was, for different possible reasons, turned into a lion. The tales are very unreliable because told by Ovid. The tales only have in common that Atalántē (Ἀταλάντη) is a devotee of Artemis and superior to all men in hunting and other typically male skills. Atalántē (Ἀταλάντη) was raised by bears and her name shall mean “equal in weight”.

Atalante is similar to Urduja a prototype of strong women. Atalante shall have lived earlier, appears in different tales and then also in different versions. So Atalante is even less well documented than the existence of Urduja. Mythology generally isn’t believed to be history in spite of both often intermingling. Urduja is claimed to be a historical person, although unproven too. So when both asteroids represent strong women, then Urduja rather represents strong women in concrete cases, while Atalante rather represents what men are fantasizing. Fearing them isn’t what men do with strong women!