Pelops

Family: House of Atreus · Role: ancestor · First appears: Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 9

Pelops was begotten by Tantalus, and Pittheus was counted as his son. At Pisa, he married Hippodameia after defeating her father Oenomaus in the chariot contest; from the marriage came Atreus. In the accounts of his rivalry with Oenomaus, Pelops outstripped his horses and won Hippodameia.

Afterward, Myrtilus was hurled from Pelops’ chariot and cast into the sea—“Pelops in his car drawn by four horses perpetrated, as he drove, the murder of Myrtilus, by casting him into the sea”—an act described as beginning the curse on his house. When Thyestes learned of the banquet’s horror, he cursed Pelops’ sons and their descendants with “a doom intolerable.”

Pelops is named as the ancestor of Agamemnon, Aegisthus, Electra, Orestes, Helen, Menelaus, Theseus, Alcmena, and Heracles. Through Pittheus and Aethra, he is linked to Theseus, while Alcmena is described as descended from his daughter; Heracles is therefore among his elder kin.

Relationship record

Life events

• Thyestes curses Pelops' sons and their descendants after discovering the banquet's horror.(Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 9)
  • With: Thyestes
  • “And learning afterwards The deed of dread, he groaned and backward fell, Vomits the feast of blood, and imprecates On Pelops' sons a doom intolerable,”
• Myrtilus dies after being hurled from Pelops' chariot.(Sophocles, Electra — Scene 3)
  • With: Myrtilus
  • “Since, from the golden oar Hurled to the deep afar, Myrtilus sank and slept, Cruelly plucked from that fell chariot-floor,”
• Pelops murders Myrtilus by casting him into the sea, beginning the curse upon his house.(Euripides, Orestes — Scene 7)
  • With: Myrtilus
  • “Pelops in his car drawn by four horses perpetrated, as he drove, the murder of Myrtilus, by casting him into the sea”
• Pelops wedged and Atreus was born from the marriage.(Euripides, Iphigenia In Tauris — Scene 1 · 📍 Pisa)
  • With: Atreus
  • “Pelops, the son of Tantalus, setting out to Pisa with his swift steeds, weds the daughter of Œnomaus, from whom sprang Atreus;”

Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 9

• child: Atreus “And learning afterwards The deed of dread, he groaned and backward fell, Vomits the feast of blood, and imprecates On Pelops' sons a doom intolerable,”
• child: Thyestes “And learning afterwards The deed of dread, he groaned and backward fell, Vomits the feast of blood, and imprecates On Pelops' sons a doom intolerable,”

Sophocles, Aias — Scene 6

• younger kin: Agamemnon “Who was thy father's father? A barbarian, Pelops, the Phrygian, if you trace him far!”