The painting "Atlanta's Race" by Poynter, [s.d.]

Photograph of the painting "Atlanta's Race" by Poynter, [s.d.]. The painting depicts the mythical race between Atlanta and Melanion. In the right foreground, Atlanta stoops to pick up a golden apple thrown at her feet by Melanion, shown farther left, who still retains one apple in his hand and can be seen looking back at his opponent. In the background, various greek spectators line either side of a causeway that ends at a tall pillar in the background.; The myth entails Melanion's plot to win a resistant Atlanta's hand in marriage. Gifted with the three golden apples from Aphrodite, Melanion is said to have challenged Atlanta to a race he could not win under normal terms as a wager for marriage. Each time, as Atlanta gained on him, Melanion dropped an apple which Atlanta consistently stopped to retrieve. This lost her the race and wed her to Melanion.; E.J. Poynter, one of the last Victorian classical painters, was born in Paris in 1836. He continued to paint classical themes until his death in 1919, long after classical paintings had gone out of vogue.