hero of Greek mythology who gave his name to the Peloponnese
Pelops
Pelops was a king of Pisa in the Peloponnese region, whose name gave the peninsula its name. He was the father of the Pelopid dynasty, to which Agamemnon belonged, and his cult gave rise to the founding myth of the Olympic Games.
The myth
According to tradition, Pelops was the son of Tantalus, king of Mount Sipylus in Anatolia. His father killed him and served his flesh as a stew to the gods to test their wisdom. Demeter, grieving over the abduction of Persephone, absent-mindedly ate one shoulder, but the other gods noticed the trick. Zeus sent Hermes to bring back the boy's soul, and Pelops was restored to life with an ivory shoulder made by Hephaestus. Poseidon took him to Olympus, made him his young apprentice and taught him to drive his divine chariot, until Zeus cast him out because of his father's betrayal.
As an adult, Pelops wanted to marry Hippodamia, daughter of King Oenomaus, who had killed her suitors in a chariot race out of fear of a prophecy about his son-in-law. Pelops asked Poseidon for help and received a chariot drawn by winged horses. With the help of Myrtilus, Oenomaus's charioteer, who replaced the bronze linchpins with wax ones, the king died during the race. Pelops later killed Myrtilus, who had tried to assault Hippodamia, and Myrtilus cursed him as he died.
Pelops ruled the kingdom, but the curse fell on his descendants: Atreus and Thyestes killed their half-brother Chrysippus. Pindar mentions that Pelops and Hippodamia had many children. During the Trojan War, his bones were taken to the city by the Greeks, following an oracle.
Worship and religion
At Olympia there was a precinct dedicated to Pelops, the Pelopion, and nighttime libations were poured into a sacrificial pit in his honour before the daylight offerings to Zeus. The chariot races he held in honour of Oenomaus are regarded as the origin of the Olympic Games.
Legacy
His name gave rise to the Peloponnese, meaning 'island of Pelops'. The story of the chariot race and the curse of the Pelopids has inspired later writers.
Ancient sources: Pindar mentions him in his First Olympian Ode, and Homer in the Iliad, in connection with the city of Cilla; Hesiod recounts the abduction of Hippodamia in the Catalogue of Women.