Pelops

In Greek mythology, the son of Tantalus, brother of Niobe, and father of Atreus and Thyestes (the Atridae). He gave his name to the southern part of mainland Greece, the Peloponnese.

As a boy, he was killed by his father and served to the gods for dinner. The immortals were not deceived, although the corn goddess Demeter was so absorbed in grief for the loss of her daughter Persephone that she ate a shoulder. Zeus ordered Hermes to put the remaining limbs into a boiling cauldron, and restored Pelops to life.

Poseidon, god of the sea, sent the boy to Olympus, but later returned him to Earth. He went to Elis where Oenomaus, king of Pisa was offering the hand of his daughter Hippodamia to anyone who could beat him in a chariot race. Pelops bribed Myrtilus, the king's charioteer, to remove the linchpin from his master's chariot in return for half the kingdom.

Having engineered the death of Oenomaus in the race, Pelops took his throne and married Hippodamia, but was unwilling to honour his agreement with Myrtilus. As they drove along a clifftop, he flung Myrtilus into the sea, and the drowning man cursed the whole race of Pelops, a curse which took effect in the dynastic rivalry of the Atridae.

Pelops was closely associated with Olympia in the west Peloponnese, where he reputedly restored the games, and where his cult remained famous in historical times.