Pelops and Poseidon

PELOPS was a king of the Eleian city of Pisa and the eponymous overlord of the western Peloponnesos, the so-called "Island of Pelops".

His father King Tantalos of Lydia was impious man who, wishing to test the fallibility of the gods, butchered the young Pelops and served him at a feast of the gods. Zeus recognised the deception, cast Tantalos into Haides for eternal torment, and had the boy resurrected by the Moirai. The Fates collected up his remains and cast them into a boiling cauldron, restoring his form except for his left shoulder which had inadvertently been devoured by the goddess Demeter. This they replaced with one made of ivory.

The young Pelops became a lover of the god Poseidon who provided him with a chariot drawn by swift--some say winged--horses. He later travelled across the sea to Greece to compete for the hand of Hippodameia, daughter of King Oinomaos (Oenomaus) of Pisa. The king would slay his daughter's suitors as he overtook them in a chariot race, so Pelops bribed the charioteer Myrtilos to tamper with the axle. Oinomaos was killed as a result and Pelops seized control of the kingdom. When Myrtilos demanded his reward, he treacherously cast him off a cliff into the sea. The dying man called down a curse upon his house which would plague Pelops and his descendants for many generations to come.

Pelops quickly grew his empire and came to control most of the western Peloponnesos. His rival in the east was King Perseus of Argos, but the two houses formed an alliance with the marriage of the daughters of Pelops to the sons of Perseus.

Pelops was one of the most important founding-kings of myth. His descendants included Herakles, Eurystheus, Theseus, Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus.