Pelops

Pelops was the son of Tantalus and a hero of Elis in the western Peloponnese. Greek poets said that he came from Lydia in Asia, was served to the gods in a banquet by his father, was brought back to life with an ivory shoulder, and later won Hippodamia by defeating her father Oenomaus in a chariot race. The Peloponnese (“island of Pelops”) took its name from him, and his descendants include Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus.

Parents and Birth

Pelops was the son of Tantalus. Pindar calls him “Lydian Pelops” and places his father’s feast for the gods at Sipylus (Olympian 1.24, 1.38), and Pausanias records signs at Mount Sipylus that Pelops and Tantalus once lived there, among them a throne of Pelops on a peak of the mountain (Pausanias 5.13.7). Hyginus names his mother as Dione, a daughter of Atlas (Fabulae 83). Thucydides records the Peloponnesian tradition that Pelops came from Asia with great wealth, gained power among a poor people and gave his name to the country (Thucydides 1.9.2).

The Banquet of the Gods

Pindar tells the story in two forms. In the version he rejects, neighbours whispered that the gods carved Pelops up, boiled him and shared his flesh at the table; Pindar says it is impossible for him to call any of the blessed gods a glutton (Olympian 1.46–52). In his own version, Clotho lifted Pelops from the pure cauldron with a shoulder of shining ivory, and Poseidon, struck by desire, snatched him away to Olympus, as Zeus later took Ganymede (Olympian 1.24–27, 36–45). Apollodorus says he was boiled by his father at a banquet of the gods, came back to life fairer than before, and because of his beauty became the favourite of Poseidon, who gave him a winged chariot (Epitome 2.3). In Hyginus, Demeter ate part of him and herself fitted an ivory shoulder (Fabulae 83). Pausanias writes that the Greeks were told in the Trojan War to fetch a bone of Pelops, a shoulder-blade, from Pisa (Pausanias 5.13.4).

The Chariot Race with Oenomaus

Oenomaus, king of Pisa, had a daughter, Hippodamia. In Apollodorus, each suitor had to carry her off in his chariot toward the Isthmus of Corinth while Oenomaus pursued him in armour, and if the king caught him he killed him (Epitome 2.4–5). Hyginus says an oracle warned Oenomaus to beware of his son-in-law (Fabulae 84); Pindar says thirteen suitors had been killed (Olympian 1.79). Pelops prayed to Poseidon at the sea shore: remembering Aphrodite's gifts, the god should hold back the bronze spear of Oenomaus and bring him to Elis in the swiftest chariot, and Poseidon gave him a golden chariot with tireless winged horses (Pindar, Olympian 1.71–87).

In the account of Apollodorus, Hippodamia fell in love with Pelops and persuaded Myrtilus, the king's charioteer and a son of Hermes, to help. Myrtilus left out the linchpins of the wheels, so that Oenomaus was thrown and dragged to death (Epitome 2.6–7). Hyginus says that Pelops himself persuaded Myrtilus with the promise of half the kingdom (Fabulae 84). Pelops took Hippodamia and the kingdom of Pisa, and after subduing the land then called Apia and Pelasgiotis he named it Peloponnesus after himself (Epitome 2.9; Pausanias 5.1.7).

Myrtilus and the Curse

On the road home, Myrtilus tried to rape Hippodamia; Pelops threw him into the sea, and as he was falling Myrtilus uttered curses against the house of Pelops (Epitome 2.8). The Eleans said that Pelops was the first to found a temple of Hermes in the Peloponnese, to avert the god's anger for the death of his son Myrtilus (Pausanias 5.1.7).

Children

By Hippodamia Pelops had six sons in Pindar (Olympian 1.89). Apollodorus names Pittheus, Atreus and Thyestes among them (Epitome 2.10), and Hyginus names Hippalcus, Atreus and Thyestes (Fabulae 84). Apollodorus also mentions daughters of Pelops who married sons of Perseus: Astydamia, Lysidice and Nicippe (Library 2.4.5). Pelops also had a son Chrysippus, whom Laius, a guest at the court of Pelops, carried off while teaching him to drive a chariot (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.5). Thucydides says that Atreus was in exile from his father because of the death of Chrysippus when Eurystheus left Mycenae in his care (Thucydides 1.9.2). Pausanias writes that Hippodamia withdrew to Midea in Argolis because Pelops was angry with her over the death of Chrysippus, and that the Eleans later brought her bones to Olympia (Pausanias 6.20.7). The sons Atreus and Thyestes later quarrelled over the kingdom of Mycenae and over Aerope (Apollodorus, Epitome 2.10–11), a feud that runs through the stories of their descendants Agamemnon, Menelaus and Aegisthus.

Games and Tomb at Olympia

Pausanias says that Pelops held the games in honour of Olympian Zeus on a grander scale than any before him (Pausanias 5.8.2). Pindar places his tomb beside the Alpheus, beside an altar much visited by strangers, and says that his fame shines far in the races of the Olympic games (Olympian 1.90–96). At Olympia the Eleans honoured him in a precinct, the Pelopion, within the Altis, more than any other hero (Pausanias 5.13.1).

Pelops Sources

Pindar, Olympian 1.23–96; Apollodorus, Library 2.4.5, 3.5.5 and Epitome 2.3–11; Hyginus, Fabulae 83, 84; Thucydides 1.9.2; Pausanias 5.1.7, 5.8.2, 5.13.1–7, 6.20.7.

See Also: Tantalus, Dione, Demeter, Poseidon, Oenomaus, Hippodamia, Myrtilus, Atreus, Thyestes, Chrysippus, Agamemnon, Menelaus