1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pelops
PELOPS, in Greek legend, the grandson of Zeus, son of Tantalus and Dione, and brother of Niobe. His father’s home was on
Mt Sipylus in Asia Minor, whence Pelops is spoken of as a
Lydian or a Phrygian. Tantalus one day served up to the
gods his own son Pelops, boiled and cut in pieces. The gods
detected the crime, and none of them would touch the food
except Demeter (according to others, Thetis), who, distracted by
the loss of her daughter Persephone, ate of the shoulder. The
gods restored Pelops to life, and the shoulder consumed by
Demeter was replaced by one of ivory. Wherefore the descendants
of Pelops had a white mark on their shoulder ever after
(Ovid, Metam. vi. 404; Virgil, Georgics, iii. 7). This tale is
perhaps reminiscent of human sacrifice amongst the Greeks.
Poseidon carried Pelops off to Olympus, where he dwelt with the
gods, till, for his father’s sins, he was cast out from heaven.
Then, taking much wealth with him, he crossed over from Asia
to Greece. He went to Pisa in Elis as suitor of Hippodameia,
daughter of king Oenomaus, who had already vanquished in
the chariot-race and slain many suitors for his daughter’s hand.
But by the help of Poseidon, who lent him winged steeds, or
of Oenomaus’s charioteer Myrtilus, whom he or Hippodameia
bribed, Pelops was victorious in the race, wedded Hippodameia,
and became king of Pisa (Hyginus, Fab. 84) The race of
Pelops for his wife may be reminiscence of the early practice of
marriage by capture. When Myrtilus claimed his promised
reward, Pelops flung him into the sea near Geraestus in Euboea,
and from his dying curse sprang those crimes and sorrows of the
house of Pelops which supplied the Greek tragedians with such
fruitful themes (Sophocles, Electra, 505, with Jebb’s note).
Among the sons of Pelops by Hippodameia were Atreus, Thyestes
and Chrysippus From Pisa Pelops extended his sway over the
neighbouring Olympia, where he celebrated the Olympian games
with a splendour unknown before. His power and fame were so
great that henceforward the whole peninsula was known to the
ancients as Peloponnesus, “island of Pelops” (
From the reference to Asia in the tales of Tantalus, Niobe and Pelops it has been conjectured that Asia was the original seat of these legends, and that it was only after emigration to Greece that the people localized a part of the tale of Pelops in their new home. In the time of Pausanias the throne of Pelops was still shown on the top of Mt Sipylus. The story of Pelops is told in the first Olympian ode of Pindar and in prose by Nicolaus Damascenus.