Pelops

In Greek mythology, Pelops (/ˈpiːlɒps, ˈpɛlɒps/; Ancient Greek: Πέλοψ, romanized: Pélops) was king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus region (Πελοπόννησος, lit. "Pelops's Island"). He was the son of Tantalus and the father of Atreus.

He was venerated at Olympia, where his cult developed into the founding myth of the Olympic Games, the most important expression of unity, not only for the people of Peloponnesus, but for all Hellenes. At the sanctuary at Olympia, chthonic 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).

Pelops was a son of Tantalus and either Dione, Euryanassa, Eurythemista, or Clytia. In some accounts, he was called a bastard son of Tantalus while others named his parents as Atlas and the nymph Linos. Others would make Pelops the son of Hermes and Calyce while another says that he was an Achaean from Olenus.

Of Phrygian or Lydian birth, he departed his homeland for Greece, and won the crown of Pisa or Olympia from King Oenomaus in a chariot race, then married Oenomaus's daughter, Hippodamia.

Pelops and Hippodamia had numerous children. Their sons include Pittheus (or his mother was Dia), Troezen, Alcathous, Dimoetes, Atreus, Thyestes, Copreus, Hippalcimus (Hippalcus, Hippalcmus), Sciron, Sicyon, Epidaurus, Cleones (Cleonymus), Letreus, Dyspontos, Pelops the younger, Argeius, Dias, Aelius, Corinthus, Cynosurus and Hippasus.

Four of their daughters married into the House of Perseus: Astydameia (who married Alcaeus), Nicippe (who married Sthenelus), Lysidice (who married Mestor), and Eurydice (who married Electryon). Another daughter of Pelops, Mytilene was called the mother of Myton by Poseidon.

By the nymph Axioche (Ἀξιόχη) or Danais Pelops was father of Chrysippus. The latter was also called the son of Hippodamia and brother of Pleisthenes who was sometimes called the son of Pelops by another woman.

Pelops's father was Tantalus, king at Mount Sipylus in Anatolia. 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, deep in grief after the abduction of her daughter Persephone by 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. While Tantalus was banished to Tartarus, Pelops was ritually reassembled and brought back to life, his shoulder replaced with one of ivory made for him by Hephaestus. Pindar mentioned this tradition in his First Olympian Ode, only to reject it as a malicious invention. Instead, Pindar relates that he was taken by Poseidon as a lover and the story of his death was a rumour spread after his disappearance by neighbours envious of Tantalus's prosperity.