Pelops
heroPelops was the prince served as food to the gods by his father Tantalus, restored to life with an ivory shoulder, and founder of the cursed dynasty that ruled Mycenae.
The Myth
After the gods restored Pelops, he won the hand of Hippodamia by defeating her father Oenomaus in a chariot race — sabotaging the king's chariot with the help of the charioteer Myrtilus, whom he then betrayed and killed. Myrtilus's dying curse fell on Pelops's descendants: Atreus, Thyestes, Agamemnon, Orestes — three generations of murder, adultery, and cannibalism. The Peloponnese (Pelops' island) is named after him.
Parents
Children
Atreus, Thyestes, Pittheus
Symbols
Fun Fact
The entire Peloponnese peninsula — the largest in Greece — is named after Pelops: Peloponnesus, "island of Pelops."
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
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