Ah yes remember Pelops? No? Well then let me remind you. Pelops was the son Tantalus, king of Sipylus, who decided to test the divinity and all-knowing nature of the gods by cutting up his son and cooking him up to give to gods at a banquet in Olympus. Obviously the gods were not fooled (except Demeter who ate the part that was Pelops' shoulder) and they kicked Tantalus out the heavens and resurrected the poor boy and Hephaestus constructed a shoulder made entirely out of ivory. The newly revived Pelops was then put under the wing of Poseidon as his apprentice and he soon became in love with the little boy (see the blog on Ganymede to get a better understanding on the Greek's view of pedophilia). Poseidon taught Pelops well, especially how to ride a chariot (being the god of horses definitely helps). His life in Olympus would all come crashing down however when Zeus threw him out because he found out that his father had stolen the food of the gods and revealed their secrets to humanity. Now fast forward some years later and Pelops is a young man and like any young man he is searching for the babes. Well this is the story of how he achieved this goal, this is the story of how he got woman.
Pelops search for royal beauty led him to the town of Pisa, Greece (near Elis {which is near Olympia}) where there was a beautiful princess named Hippodamia. Now there was good reason why such a beauty was not married was because of her father and king Oenomaus. Why would the king not want someone to carry on the line? Destiny of course, for it was foretold that he would be murdered by his future son in law, so in order to prevent his fate, he challenged any would be suitors to a chariot race and if they lost; they were executed and had their heads staked in the entrance of his palace as a warning to all suitors.
Have at you!
Seeing the 13 heads on the stakes at the entrance of the palace, Pelops scoffed and was like "Pth, I'm way more badass than any of those posers!" He walked up to Oenomaus and asked for Hippodamia's hand in marriage and challenged the king to a chariot race. The king gladly accepted, thinking he would have another head for the collection. Before the race; however, Pelops wanted to make sure that he won. (Cheating isn't reserved for the bad guys you see) First he went to the sea and asked his former teacher to aid him in this race. When he got no response he then attempted to remind Poseidon of their relationship; to which a divinely crafted chariot driven by two winged horses came out to the sea. Next, he wanted to rig Oenomaus' chariot so he convinced the king's charioteer, Myrtilus (a son of Hermes), to sabotage his lord's chariot for a bribe. Myrtilus accepted and went back to the royal stables and replaced the bronze axles in the chariot's wheels with ones made out of beeswax.
NIKE!!!!
The race was fierce and tight through out, but it was through Pelops' shrewd plans that led to his victory. Just as the king was about to take the lead for the win, the beeswax axles finally broke and the chariot crashed and fell apart, the cruel king was dragged to death by his own horses, the prophecy was fulfilled when Pelops won the race, the son-in-law had led to death to Oenomaus. Pelops rode to victory as Hippodamia climbed up on his chariot and they began a new kingdom. What happened to Myrtilus, well he survived the chariot crash, but was killed by Pelops when the saboteur tried to rape his newly wedded wife. From this new couple would arise the tragic family the House of Atreus (we saw how that family ended its misfortunes by the way) Perhaps for next week I should explain where the "Curse of Atreus" began? Maybe.
Nice
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