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PELOPS

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 76 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PELOPS , in See also:

Greek See also:legend, the See also:grandson of See also:Zeus, son of See also:Tantalus and See also:Dione, and See also:brother of See also:Niobe. His See also:father's See also:home was on Mt Sipylus in See also:Asia See also:Minor, whence Pelops is spoken of as a Lydian or a Phrygian. Tantalus one See also:day served up to the gods his own son Pelops, boiled and cut in pieces. The gods detected the See also:crime, and none of them would See also:touch the See also:food except See also:Demeter (according to others, See also:Thetis), who, distracted by the loss of her daughter Persephone, See also:ate of the See also:shoulder. The gods restored Pelops to See also:life, and the shoulder consumed by Demeter was replaced by one of See also:ivory. Wherefore the descendants of Pelops had a See also:white See also:mark on their shoulder ever after (See also:Ovid, Metam. vi. 404; See also:Virgil, Georgics, iii. 7). This See also:tale is perhaps reminiscent of human See also:sacrifice amongst the Greeks. See also:Poseidon carried Pelops off to See also:Olympus, where he dwelt with the gods, till, for his father's sins, he was See also:cast out from See also:heaven. Then, taking much See also:wealth with him, he crossed over from Asia to See also:Greece. He went to See also:Pisa in Ells as suitor of Hippodameia, daughter of See also:king See also:Oenomaus, who had already vanquished in the See also:chariot-See also:race and slain many suitors for his daughter's See also:hand.

But by the help of Poseidon, who See also:

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 (See also:Hyginus, Fab. 84). The race of Pelops for his wife may be a See also:reminiscence of the See also:early practice of See also:marriage by See also:capture. When Myrtilus claimed his promised See also:reward, Pelops flung him into the See also:sea near Geraestus in See also:Euboea, and from his dying curse sprang those crimes and sorrows of the See also:house of Pelops which supplied the Greek tragedians with such fruitful themes (See also:Sophocles, See also:Electra, 505, with See also:Jebb's See also:note): Among the sons of Pelops by Hippodameia were See also:Atreus, Thyestes and See also:Chrysippus. From Pisa Pelops extended his sway over the neighbouring See also:Olympia, where he celebrated the Olympian See also:games with a splendour unknown before. His See also:power and fame were so See also:great that henceforward the whole See also:peninsula was known to the ancients as See also:Peloponnesus, " See also:island of Pelops " (vqa-os, island). In after times Pelops was honoured at Olympia above all other heroes; a See also:temple was built for him by Heracles, his descendant in the See also:fourth See also:generation, in which the See also:annual magistrates sacrificed to him a See also:black See also:ram. From the reference to Asia in the tales of Tantalus, Niobe and Pelops it has been conjectured that Asia was the See also:original seat of these legends, and that it was only after See also:emigration to Greece that the See also:people localized a See also:part of the tale of Pelops in their new home. In the See also:time of See also:Pausanias the See also:throne of Pelops was still shown on the See also:top of Mt Sipylus. The See also:story of Pelops is told in the first Olympian See also:ode of See also:Pindar and in See also:prose by Nicolaus Damascenus.

End of Article: PELOPS

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PELOTA (Sp. " little ball," from Lat. piles)

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