Chapter 5, entitled On the Wings of Atalanta, alludes to Greek mythology, employing the story of Atalanta and Hippomenes as an allegory for the relationship between Black people (or, for that matter, Americans generally) and material riches. Du Bois shares this tale with his readers:
Perhaps Atlanta was not christened for the winged maiden of dull Boeotia; you know the tale — how swarthy Atalanta, tall and wild, would marry only him who out-raced her; and how the wily Hippomenes laid three apples of gold in the way. She fled like a shadow, paused, startled over the first apple, but even as he stretched his hand, fled again; hovered over the second, then, slipping from his hot grasp, flew over river, vale, and hill; but as she lingered over the third, his arms fell around her. . . . If Atlanta be not named for Atalanta, she ought to have been.
The purpose of this allegory is to demonstrate the pitfalls of focusing only on material wealth as the end goal of education. Atalanta, distracted by the golden apples, falls prey to Hippomenes and is cursed because of it. Du Bois argues that Black Americans must not be so focused on the acquisition of wealth that they abandon the principle of learning simply for the joy of it.
