(.)
1. A grandson of Zeus and son of Tantalus and Dione, the daughter of Atlas. (Orest. init.) As he was
thus a great-grandson of Crones, he is called by Pindar Ol. 3.41), though it may also contain an allusion
to Pluto, the mother of Tantalus, who was a daughter of Cronos. [PLUTO.] Some writers call the mother of Pelops Euryanassa or Clytia. (Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 5, 11; Tzetz. ad Lyc. 52; comp.
Apostol. Centur. 18.7.) He was married to Hippodameia, by whom he became
the father of Atreus (Letreus, ald Erip. Orest. 5.) By Axioche or the nymph Danais he is said to have
been the father of Chrysippus (Schol. ad Eurip. I.c. ; Plut. Puarall. min. 33), and according to Pindar (1.89) he had only six sons by
Hippodanieia, whereas the Scholiast (ad Ol. 1.144) mentions Pleisthenes
and Chrysippus as sons of Pelops by Hllippodameia. Further, while the common accounts mention
only the two daughters above named, Plutarch (
Pelops was king of Pisa in Elis, and from him the great southern peninsula of Greece was
believed to have derived its name Peloponnesus; the nine small islands, moreover, which were
situated off the Troezenian coast, opposite Methana, are said to have been called after hint
the Pelopian islands. (Ajax, 1292; ad Pind. Ol.
1.37 ; ad Pind. l.c.) Some,
further, call him an Arcsadian, and state that by a stratagem he slew the Arcadian kilg
Stymphalus, and scattered about the limbs of his body which he had cut to pieces. (
The legends about Pelops consist mainly of the story of his being cut to pieces and boiled, and of the tuole concerning his contest with Oenomaus and Hippodaineia, to which may be added the legends about his relation to his sons and about his remains.
Tantalus, the favourite of the gods, it is said, once invited them to a repast, and on that
occasion he slaughlitered his own son, and having boiled him set the flesh before them that
they might eat it. Bult the immortal gods, knowing what it was, did not touch it; Demeter
alone being absorbed by her grief about her lost daughter (others mentioned Thetis, Schol.
ad Pind. Ol. 1.37), consumed the shoulder of Pelops. Hereupon the gods
ordered Hermes to put the limbs of Pelops into a cauldron, and thereby restore to him his
life and former appearance. When the process was over, Clotho took him out of the cauldron,
and as the shoulder consumed by Demeter was wanting, Denmeter supplied its place by one made
of ivory ; his descendaints (the Pelopidae), as a mark of their origin, were believed to have
one shoulder as white as ivory. (Tzetz.
ad Lyc. 152; ad
Aristid. p. 216, ed. Frommnel; Lucian, De Saltlt. 54; Ol. 1.46, &c.; conmp. Schol. ad
Ol. 1.69; Imnaug. 1.17; Lucian, Charid. 7;
As an oracle had declared to Oenomaus that he should be killed by his son-in-law, he
refused giving his fair daughter Hippodameia in marriage to any one. (Some said that he
himself was in love with his daughter, and for this reason refused to give her to any one;
Tzetz.
ad Lyc. 156; Lucian, Charid. 19 ; hygin. Fab. 253.) Many suitors however, appearing, Oenomnaus declared that he
would give her to him, who should conquer him in the chariot-race, but that he should kill
those that should be conquered by him. [OENOMAUS.] Among other
suitors Pelops also presented himself, but when he saw the heads of his conquered
predecessors stuck up above the door of Oenomaus, he was seized with fear, and endeavoured to
gain the favour of Myrtilus, the chiarioteer of Oenomaus, promising him half the kingdom if
he would assist him in gaining Hippodameeia. Myrtilus agreed, and did not properly fasten the
wheels to the chariot of Oenomaus. so that he might be upset during the race. The plan
succeeded, and Oenomans dying pronounced a curse upon Myrtilus. When Pelops returned home
with Hippodameia and Myrtilus, he resolved to throw the latter into the sea. As Myrtilus
sank, he cursed Pelops and his whole race. (Hygiin. Fab. 84; Schol. ad Pind. Ol. 1.114; Ol. 1.109, &c.) On the chest of Cypselus where
the race was represented, the horses had wings. (HIPPODAMEIA and MYRTILUS.) In order to atone for the murder
of Myrtilus, Pelops founded the first temple of Hermes in Peloponnesus (
Chrysippus who was the favourite of his father, roused the envy of his brothers, who in
concert with Hippodameia, prevailed upon the two eldest among them, Atreus and Thyestes, to
kill Chrysippus. They accomplished their crime, and threw the body of their murdered brother
into a well. According to some Atreuts alone was the murderer (Schol. ad
Eurip. Orest. 800), or Pelops himself killed him (Schol. ad Thuc.
1.9), or Chrysippus made away with himself (Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen.
1760), or Hippodameia Parall. Min. 33.) According to the common tradition, however, Pelops,
who suspected his sons of the murder, expelled them from the country, and they dispersed all
over Peloponnesus. (Schol. ad Eurip. Or. 5;
While the Greeks were engaged in the siege of Troy, they were informed by an oracle, that
the city could not be taken, unless one of the bones of Pelops were brought from Elis to
Troas. The shoulder bone accordingly was fetched from Letrina or Pisa, but was lost together
with the ship in which it was carried, off the coast of Euboea. Many years afterwards it was
dragged up from the bottom of the sea by a fisherman, Demarmenus of Eretria, who concealed it
in the sand, and then consulted the Delphic oracle about it. At Delphi he met ambassadors of
the Eleians, who had come to consult the oracle respecting a plague, which was raging in
their country. The Pythia requested Demarmienus to give the shoulder bone of Pelops to the
Eleians. This was done accordingly, and the Eleians appointed Demarmenus to guard the
venerable relic. (Tzetz.
ad Lyc. 52, 54.) According to some the Palladium was made of the bones
of Pelops. (Clem. Alex. ad Gent. p. 30d; cosmp. ad Pind. Ol. 1.146.) The spot on which his sanctuary
(l.c. ; 5.26, in fin.;