Pelops
Pelops 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 Legend of Pelops
Grandson of Zeus and son of Tantalus, Pelops was murdered by his father and served to the gods at a feast to test their omniscience. All the gods recognised the crime except Demeter, who ate a shoulder. Zeus ordered Hermes to restore Pelops; Hephaestus crafted an ivory shoulder to replace the one Demeter consumed. Pelops then won the hand of Hippodamia by defeating her father in a chariot race — rigged with Poseidon's divine horses. The curse from this treachery passed to his sons Atreus and Thyestes, and through them to Agamemnon, Menelaus, and the Trojan War.
Parents
Tantalus
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. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Pelops
🗡 herokingship
Son of Tantalus, restored to life by the gods with an ivory shoulder, who won his bride by cheating in a chariot race and cursed his line.
Cadmus
🗡 heroFounder of Thebes
Cadmus was the Phoenician prince who founded Thebes, sowed dragon's teeth, and brought the alphabet from Phoenicia to Greece.
Anchises
🗡 heroLove, royalty, Troy
Trojan prince beloved by Aphrodite and father of Aeneas, the legendary founder of Rome
Aerope
🗡 heroAdultery, royalty
Queen of Mycenae whose adultery with Thyestes caused the devastating curse upon the House of Atreus
Thyestes
🗡 herocurse
Brother of Atreus who seduced his sister-in-law and was tricked into eating his own children at the feast of Atreus.
Perseus
🗡 heroHero who slew Medusa
The son of Zeus and Danae who beheaded Medusa, rescued Andromeda, and founded the Perseid dynasty of Mycenae.
Myrtilus
🗡 herocurse
Charioteer of King Oenomaus bribed by Pelops to sabotage his master's chariot, then murdered by Pelops and the origin of the Pelopid curse.
Paris
🗡 heroPrince who caused the Trojan War
Paris was the Trojan prince whose judgement of three goddesses and abduction of Helen ignited the Trojan War — the most consequential act of desire in Western mythology.
Anaxibia
🗡 heroMarriage, royalty
Mycenaean princess who married Strophius of Phocis and raised the young Orestes in secret
Pentheus
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Thebes torn apart by his own mother for opposing the worship of Dionysus
Bellerophon
🗡 heroThe hero who tamed Pegasus
The Corinthian hero who tamed the winged horse Pegasus and slew the Chimera, but fell from heaven when he tried to reach Olympus.
Tantalus
🗡 heroKing punished with eternal hunger and thirst
A king who offended the gods by serving them his own son as a meal. His punishment in Tartarus — standing in water that recedes when he tries to drink, beneath fruit that pulls away when he reaches for it — gave us the word "tantalize."