Atalanta
"The heavenly huntress."
Atalanta (アタランテ, Atalante) is a Summon of the Jupiter element. It is one of sixteen summons that is automatically available as soon as the player has acquired the necessary Djinn.
Basic Characteristics
For a successful summoning of Atalanta, the player must have two Jupiter Djinn on Standby. Atalanta has a base Jupiter power of 60 and also does additional damage equivalent to 6% of the enemy’s maximum HP. Afterwards, the summoner's Jupiter Power will be raised by 30 points.
In all its appearances, Atalanta's summon sequence features a young green-haired woman garbed in Greek-style clothing summoning an array of green energy arrows that shoot down into the enemy party.
Analysis
Atalanta is exactly the equivalent to two usages of the Jupiter summon sequence. The main bonus of using Atalanta is that Atalanta provides a larger boost to Jupiter Power, 30 points compared to the 10 points of the Jupiter summon. Atalanta is typically used in the earlier portions of the game, where the player will have fewer Djinn and weaker weapons and Psynergy.
In The Lost Age and Dark Dawn, the Atalanta summon must also compete to a degree with the Flora summon, which is stronger than Atalanta, and also has the useful side-effect of potentially putting targets to sleep. However, Atalanta is available automatically, whereas Flora must be acquired from a stone tablet. In either case, however, as the player acquires more Djinn, Atalanta will typically be ignored in favor of stronger summons like Thor.
Cultural references
Origin: Greece
In Greek mythology Atalanta was a skillful warrior with a bow and arrow. She took part in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, an immense godsent monster roaming the countryside. She was also famous for running and winning races against all suitors, only losing to Hippomenes when he placed three golden apples, given to him by Aphrodite, to distract her along the course. Atalanta is one of the few female heroes recorded in Greek texts. Her Japanese name, Atalante, refers to the original Greek pronunciation.
Atalanta separated sprite, TLA version
Atalanta full sequence
Piece of animation from the GSDD Atalanta summon sequence
| Summon sequences | |
|---|---|
| Venus | Starter: Venus • Ramses • Cybele • Judgment Collectable: Zagan • Haures • Crystallux • Charon |
| Mars | Starter: Mars • Kirin • Tiamat • Meteor Collectable: Megaera • Ulysses • Daedalus • Iris |
| Jupiter | Starter: Jupiter • Atalanta • Procne • Thor Collectable: Flora • Eclipse • Catastrophe |
| Mercury | Starter: Mercury • Nereid • Neptune • Boreas Collectable: Moloch • Coatlicue • Azul |
