Atalanta | Calydon | Vanessa atalanta |
Reed was inspired by the poem Atalanta in Calydon (1865), by Victorian era English poet, Algernon Charles Swinburne, a recreation in modern English verse of an ancient Greek tragedy.
The third novel, In the Shape of a Boar, juxtaposes the flight of a Bukovina Jew in World War II with the legend of Atalanta in Calydon.