Pelops

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Pelops

In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, Pelops (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
?????, from pelios: dark; and ops: face, eye), king of Pisa

Pisa (Greece)

Pisa was the name of an ancient town in the western Peloponnese, Greece. The area controlled by Pisa was called Pisatis, which included Olympia, Greece, the site of the Ancient Olympic Games....
in the Peloponnesus, was venerated at Olympia

Olympia, Greece

Olympia , a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi....
, where his cult developed into the founding myth

Founding myth

A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values....
of the Olympic Games

Ancient Olympic Games

The Ancient Olympic Games, originally referred to as simply the Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions held for representatives of various city-states of Ancient Greece....
, the most important expression of unity, not only for the Peloponnesus, "land of Pelops", but for all Hellenes. At the sanctuary at Olympia, chthonic

Chthonic

Chthonic designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Ancient Greek religion.Greek khthon is one of several words for "earth"; it typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the Landscape or the land as territory ....
night-time libations were offered each time to "dark-faced" Pelops in his sacrificial pit (bothros) before they were offered in the following daylight to the sky-god Zeus (Burkert 1983:96).

ps was a son of Tantalus

Tantalus

In Greek mythology Tantalus was a son of Zeus and the nymph Plouto. Thus he was a king in the primordial world, the father of a son Broteas whose very name signifies "mortals" ....
and Dione

Dione (mythology)

Dione in Greek mythology is a vague goddess presence who has her most concrete form in Book V of Homer's Iliad as the mother of Aphrodite who lived among the mortals was known for her kindness....
.

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In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek language

Pisa (Greece)

Olympia, Greece

Founding myth

A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values....
of the Olympic Games

Ancient Olympic Games

Chthonic

Genealogy

Pelops was a son of Tantalus

Tantalus

In Greek mythology Tantalus was a son of Zeus and the nymph Plouto. Thus he was a king in the primordial world, the father of a son Broteas whose very name signifies "mortals" ....
and Dione

Dione (mythology)

Phrygian

Phrygian can refer to:*A person from Phrygia*Phrygian cap once characteristic of the region* Phrygian language*Phrygian mode in music* Phrygian Valley, a historic location in northwestern Turkey...
or Lydian

Lydian

Lydian may refer to:* Lydian language, an ancient Anatolian language* Lydian script* Lydian mode, one of the modes derived from ancient Greek music...
birth, he departed his homeland for Greece, and won the crown of Pisa

Pisa (Greece)

Olympia, Greece

Oenomaus

In Greek mythology, King Oenomaus of Pisa was the son of Ares by Harpina and father of Hippodamia. By some accounts Sterope is considered to be his mother by Ares, instead of Harpina....
. Pelops was credited with numerous children, begotten on his wife Hippodameia

Hippodamia

Hippodamia , was a daughter of King Oenomaus and wife of Pelops with whom her offspring were Thyestes, Atreus, and Pittheus, Alcathous....
, daughter of Oenomaus. Pelops' sons include Pittheus

Pittheus

In Greek mythology, Pittheus was a son of Pelops and father of Aethra. He was the King of Troezen. He was a wise man and understood the words of Aegeus' prophesy when no one else did....
, Alcathous

Alcathous

Alcathous was the name of several people in Greek mythology:*Alcathous, son of Pelops, killed the Cithaeronian lion.*Alcathous, son of Aesyetes, husband of Hippodameia, the daughter of Anchises and sister of Aeneas, who was educated in the house of Alcathous....
, Dias, Pleisthenes

Pleisthenes

In Greek mythology, Pleisthenes was either the son of Pelops, or Pelops' son Atreus . His wife was either Aerope or Cleolla, daughter of Dias, another son of Pelops....
, Atreus

Atreus

In Greek mythology, Atreus was the son of Pelops and Hippodamia, a king of Mycenae, and the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Collectively, his descendants are known as Atreidai or Atreidae....
, Thyestes

Thyestes

In Greek mythology, Thyestes was the son of Pelops, King of Olympia, Greece, and Hippodamia and father of Pelopia and Aegisthus. Thyestes and his twin brother, Atreus, were exiled by their father for having murdered their half-brother, Chrysippus in their desire for the throne of Olympia, Greece....
, Copreus

Copreus

In Greek mythology, Copreus was King Eurystheus' herald. He announced Heracles' Twelve Labors. Copreus was said to be a son of Pelops and Hippodameia....
, and Hippalcimus. Pelops and Hippodameia also had several daughters, some of whom married into the House of Perseus

Perseus

Perseus , the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Mycenae there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths in the cult of the Twelve Olympians....
, such as Astydameia

Astydameia

In Greek mythology, Astydameia is a name attributed to three individuals....
(who married Alcaeus

Alcaeus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Alcaeus or Alkaios was the name of a number of different people:*Alcaeus, a son of Perseus and Andromeda , and married to Hipponome, the daughter of Menoeceus of Thebes, Greece, by whom he became the father of Amphitryon and Anaxo....
), Nicippe

Nicippe

Nicippe is a name attributed to two women in Greek mythology.# Nicippe was one of the fifty daughters of Thespius and Megamede. She bore Heracles a son, Antimachus ....
(who married Sthenelus

Sthenelus

In Greek mythology, Sthenelus was a name attributed to four different individuals.*Sthenelus of Perseus and Andromeda .*Son of Capaneus and Evadne....
), and Eurydice

Eurydice of Mycenae

In Greek mythology, Eurydice was the daughter of Pelops and was married to Electryon, king of Mycenae and son of Perseus . She bore him Alcmena, mother of Heracles....
(who married Electryon

Electryon

In Greek mythology, Electryon was the son of Perseus and Andromeda , and king of Mycenae. He married either Anaxo, daughter of his brother Alcaeus and sister of Amphitryon, or Eurydice of Mycenae daughter of Pelops....
). By the nymph Axioche

Axioche

Axioche was a nymph In Greek mythology. She was the mother of Chrysippus by Pelops....
, Pelops was father of Chrysippus

Chrysippus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Chrysippus was a divine hero of Elis in the Peloponnesus, a young boy, the Illegitimacy son of Pelops king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus and the nymph Axioche....
.

Tantalus' savage banquet

Pelops' father was Tantalus, king at Mount Sipylus in Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia or Asia Minor is a region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Iranian plateau to the east and southeast....
. Wanting to make an offering to the Olympians, Tantalus cut Pelops into pieces and made his flesh into a stew, then served it to the gods. Demeter

Demeter

File:Demeter in horse chariot w daughter kore 83d40m wikiC Tempio Y di Selinunte sec VIa.JPGDemeter , in Greek mythology, is the Goddess of cereal and fertility, the pure....
, deep in grief after the abduction of her daughter Persephone

Persephone

In Greek mythology, Persephone was the embodiment of the Earth's fertility at the same time that she was the Queen of the Greek Underworld, the kore , and the parthenogenesis daughter of Demeter and, in later Classical myths, a daughter of Demeter and Zeus....
by Hades

Hades

Hades refers both to the ancient Greek underworld, the abode of Hades, and to the god of the underworld. Hades in Homer referred just to the god; the genitive case , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades"....
, absentmindedly accepted the offering and ate the left shoulder. The other gods sensed the plot, however, and held off from eating of the boy's body. Pelops was ritually reassembled and brought back to life, his shoulder replaced with one made of ivory

Ivory

File:Ivory decoration.jpgIvory is formed from dentine and constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth and narwhal....
made for him by Hephaestus

Hephaestus

Hephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan . He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculpture, metals, metallurgy, Fire and volcanoes....
. Pindar mentioned this tradition in his First Olympian Ode, only to reject it as a malicious invention: his patron claimed descent from Tantalus.

After Pelops' resurrection, Poseidon

Poseidon

In Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the god Nethuns in Etruscan mythology was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon....
took him to Olympus

Olympus

A number of different things are named Olympus:...
, and made the youth his apprentice, teaching him to drive the divine chariot. Later, Zeus threw Pelops out of Olympus, angry that his father, Tantalus, had stolen the food of the gods, given it to his subjects, and revealed the secrets of the gods.

Courting Hippodamia

Having grown to manhood, Pelops wanted to marry Hippodamia

Hippodamia

Hippodamia , was a daughter of King Oenomaus and wife of Pelops with whom her offspring were Thyestes, Atreus, and Pittheus, Alcathous....
. King Oenomaus

Oenomaus

In Greek mythology, King Oenomaus of Pisa was the son of Ares by Harpina and father of Hippodamia. By some accounts Sterope is considered to be his mother by Ares, instead of Harpina....
, her father, fearful of a prophecy that claimed he would be killed by his son-in-law, had killed thirteen suitors of Hippodamia after defeating them in a chariot race

Chariot racing

Chariot racing was one of the most popular Ancient Greece, Roman Empire and Byzantine empire sports. Chariot racing was often dangerous to both driver and horse?they frequently suffered serious injury and even death?but generated strong spectator enthusiasm....
and affixed their heads to the wooden columns of his palace. Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Roman Greece traveller and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius....
was shown what was purported to be the last standing column in the late second century CE. Pelops came to ask for her hand and prepared to race Oenomaus. Worried about losing, Pelops went to the seaside and invoked Poseidon, his former lover. Reminding Poseidon of their love ("Aphrodite

Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the classical Greek mythology goddess of love, sex, and beauty. According to Greek oral poet Hesiod, she was born when Uranus was castrated by his son Cronus....
's sweet gifts"), he asked Poseidon for help. Smiling, Poseidon caused a chariot drawn by winged horses to appear. In an episode that was added to the simple heroic chariot race, Pelops, still unsure of himself (or alternatively, Hippodamia herself), convinced Oenomaus' charioteer, Myrtilus

Myrtilus

In Greek mythology, Myrtilus was a divine hero, a son of Hermes on Theobula, and charioteer of King Oenomaus of Pisa in Elis, on the northwest coast of the Peloponnesus....
, a son of Hermes

Hermes

Hermes is the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology. An Twelve Olympians, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of general commerce, and of the cunni...
, to help him win. Pelops or Hippodamia herself convinced Myrtilus by promising him half of Oenomaus' kingdom and the first night in bed with Hippodamia. The night before the race, while Myrtilus was putting together Oenomaus' chariot, he replaced the bronze linchpins attaching the wheels to the chariot

Chariot

The chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BC and in China during the 2nd millennium BC....
axle with fake ones made of beeswax. The race started, and went on for a long time. But just as Oenomaus was catching up to Pelops and readying to kill him, the wheels flew off and the chariot broke apart. Myrtilus survived, but Oenomaus was dragged to death by his horses. Pelops then killed Myrtilus (by throwing him off a cliff into the sea) after the latter attempted to rape Hippodamia.

Walter Burkert notes that though the story of Hippodamia's abduction figures in the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women

Catalogue of Women

The Catalogue of Women is an Ancient Greek literature poem. Ancient writers sometimes attributed it to Hesiod, although the poem contains a few references to events and things after Hesiod's time that could suggest that they were later added or that the epic is of a completely different author....
and on the chest of Cypselus

Cypselus

Cypselus was the first tyrant of Corinth in the 7th century BC.With increased wealth and more complicated trade relations and social structures, Ancient Greece city-states tended to overthrow their traditional hereditary priest-kings; Corinth, the richest archaic polis, led the way....
(ca. 570 BCE) that was conserved at Olympia, and though preparations for the chariot-race figured in the east pediment of the great temple of Zeus at Olympia

Temple of Zeus

The Temple of Zeus at Olympia, built in 470-456 BCE, was the ancient Greek temple in Olympia, Greece, dedicated to the chief of the gods, Zeus....
, the myth of the chariot race only became important at Olympia with the introduction of chariot racing

Chariot racing

Chariot racing was one of the most popular Ancient Greece, Roman Empire and Byzantine empire sports. Chariot racing was often dangerous to both driver and horse?they frequently suffered serious injury and even death?but generated strong spectator enthusiasm....
in the twenty-fifth Olympiad (680 BCE). G. Devereux connected the abduction of Hippodamia with animal husbandry taboos of Elis, and the influence of Elis at Olympia that grew in the seventh century.

Curse of the Pelopidai

As Myrtilus died, he cursed Pelops for his ultimate betrayal. This was one of the sources of the curse that destroyed his family (two of his sons, Atreus

Atreus

Thyestes

Chrysippus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Chrysippus was a divine hero of Elis in the Peloponnesus, a young boy, the Illegitimacy son of Pelops king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus and the nymph Axioche....
, who was his favorite son and was meant to inherit the kingdom; Atreus and Thyestes were banished by him together with Hippodamia, their mother, who then hanged herself) and haunted Pelops' children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren including Atreus, Thyestes, Agamemnon

Agamemnon

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon / is the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra; different mythological versions make him the king either of Mycenae or of Argos....
, Aegisthus

Aegisthus

In Greek mythology, Aegisthus was the son of Thyestes and of his daughter, Pelopia.Thyestes felt he had been deprived of the Mycenae throne unfairly by his brother, Atreus....
, Menelaus

Menelaus

Menelaus may refer to;*Menelaus, one of the two most known Atrides, a king of Sparta and son of Atreus and Aerope*Menelaus on the Moon, named after Menelaus of Alexandria....
and Orestes

Orestes (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Orestes was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek theatre and of various legends connected with his madness and purification....
.

Pelops' cultus

The shrine of Pelops at Olympia, the Pelopion "drenched in glorious blood", described by Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Roman Greece traveller and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius....
stood apart from the temple of Zeus, next to Pelops' grave-site by the ford in the river. It was enclosed with a circle of stones. Pelops was propitiated at night, with the offering of a black ram. His remains were contained in a chest near the sanctuary of Artemis Kordax (Pausanias 6.22.1), though in earlier times a gigantic shoulder blade was shown; during the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
, John Tzetzes

John Tzetzes

John Tzetzes , was a Byzantine Empire poet and grammarian, known to have lived at Constantinople during the 12th century.Tzetzes was Georgians on his mother's side ....
said, Pelops' shoulder-blade was brought to Troy

Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
by the Greeks because the Trojan prophet Helenus

Helenus

Helenus was a Trojan soldier and prophet in the Trojan War.In Greek mythology, Helenus was the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, and the twin brother of the prophetess Cassandra....
claimed the Pelopids would be able to win by doing so. Pausanias was told the full story: the shoulder-blade of Pelops was brought to Troy from Pisa

Pisa (Greece)

Pelops (son of Agamemnon)

There is another Pelops in Greek mythology. This was a son of Agamemnon

Agamemnon

Cassandra

In Greek mythology, Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her beauty caused Apollo to grant her the gift of prophecy....
. This Pelops, carrying the ancestral name, and his twin brother Teledamus (destined to have been "far-ruling"), the very emblems of the Pelopides, were murdered in their infancy by the usurper Aegisthus

Aegisthus

In Greek mythology, Aegisthus was the son of Thyestes and of his daughter, Pelopia.Thyestes felt he had been deprived of the Mycenae throne unfairly by his brother, Atreus....
.

Spoken-word myths - audio files

Ancient sources

Ovid
Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
, Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses (poem)

The Metamorphoses by the Ancient Rome poet Ovid is a Narrative poetry in fifteen books that describes the Creation myth and history of the world....
VI, 403-11
Apollodorus
Apollodorus

Apollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greeks scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace....
, Epitome
Epitome

An epitome is a summary or miniature form; an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment.Many documents from the Ancient Greek and Ancient Rome worlds survive now only "in epitome," referring to the practice of some later authors who wrote distilled versions of larger works now lost....
II, 3-9; V, 10
Pindar
Pindar

Pindar , was an Ancient Greek Lyric poetry poet.Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, Pindar is the one whose work is by far the best preserved, and critics in antiquity tended to regard him as the greatest....
, Olympian Ode I
Sophocles
Sophocles

Sophocles was the second of the three classical Greece tragedy whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides....
, Electra 504 and Oinomaos Fr. 433
Euripides
Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
, Orestes
Orestes (play)

Orestes is an Ancient Greek play by Euripides that follows the events of Orestes after he had murdered his mother....
1024-1062
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus , was a Roman Greece historian who flourished in the 1st century BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agira in Sicily ....
, Histories 4.73
Hyginus
Gaius Julius Hyginus

Gaius Julius Hyginus was a Latin author, though whether a native of Spain or of Alexandria it is not clear, a pupil of the famous Alexander Cornelius, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus, by whom he was made superintendent of the Palatine library, according to Suetonius' minor works, De Grammaticis, 20....
, Fables: 84 - Oenomaus
Oenomaus

In Greek mythology, King Oenomaus of Pisa was the son of Ares by Harpina and father of Hippodamia. By some accounts Sterope is considered to be his mother by Ares, instead of Harpina....
Pausanias
Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Roman Greece traveller and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius....
, Description of Greece 5.1.3-7, 5.13.1, 6.21.9, 8.14.10-11
Philostratus
Philostratus

Philostratus, was the name of four Greek sophists of the Roman Empire:# "Philostratus I": Very minor author, known only for a dialogue Nero, possibly written by Philostratus II....
, Imagines 1.30 - Pelops
Philostratus the Younger, Imagines 9 - Pelops

Modern sources

External links

compiled from selected primary sources to highlight the shamanic and Promethean aspects of the tale. By Pindar's time this view would have been rejected.