Context: The story of Atalanta and Hippomenes is directly preceded by the story of Adonis in Book Ten of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Ovid tells the story of Atalanta and Hippomenes who is telling it to Adonis—the most beautiful mortal man, whom Aphrodite falls in love with. The first time we hear of Atalanta is actually all the way back in Book Eight of Metamorphoses where the hunter Meleager discovers her, and immediately falls in love with her—just as Hippomenes will in Book Ten. Meleager and Atalanta team up with a bunch of other men to defeat a rugged wild boar. Atalanta uses her bow shoot the wild boar with expert marksmanship, seriously injuring it. The other men in the hunter's party feel upset that a woman has taken down the wild boar while they helplessly stood and watched. The other hunters recklessly attack the boar and eventually injure themselves, except for Meleager. He manages to ultimately kill the boar. The other men are pleased to see that a man was the one to finally kill the boar; however, Meleager insists that they share the honor of killing the boar equally between him and Atalanta. The other hunters react so negatively that Meleager kills them. Upon returning home, Meleager's mother is horrified to learn that he has killed two of the other hunters (his uncles, and her brothers), so she curses him to death. Meleager dies. The main connection between the story of Atalanta and Meleager and the story of Atalanta and Hippomenes is how the two males are driven to do crazy acts out of love for Atalanta. Meleager kills his uncles to stand up for Atalanta which unknowingly leads to his death. In comparison, Hippomenes knowingly risks his life for Atalanta and ends up successfully avoiding death which seems ironic when compared to Meleager.