The legend of Atalanta and Hippomenes is recounted by Ovid in his Metamorphoses: Atalanta was an athletic huntress who challenged her suitors to a race, punishing them with death if they lost. Unbeaten, she was taken on by Hippomenes, who helped by Venus, threw three golden apples into Atalanta's path. As a result of stooping to pick up the apples she lost the race and gave herself to Hippomenes as his prize.

Pradier has represented Atalanta in a pose which recalls the Crouching Venus of the Antique. In spite of the myth, in Pradier's model Atalanta is not stooping to pick up the apples but rather to tie her sandals, an action in sculpture frequently applied to figures of Venus and to bathers. On its unveiling at the Salon of 1850, the symbolism of the original marble version of Atalante (now in the Louvre) became a subject of debate among critics and visitors. Was the scene depicted showing Atalanta at the beginning, middle or end of the race? Has she just removed her jewellery and is now untying her sandal, or is she putting them on? Furthermore, critics dismissed the work's reference to mythology and perceived Atalanta to be a modern work "une Parisienne sortant du bain" (L. de Geofroy, Le Salon, in Revue des Deux Mondes, 1er mars, 1851, p. 963).