Pelias

Family: Patræ · Role: founder of games at Olympia · First appears: Book 5 · Chapter 8

At Olympia, Pelias and Neleus jointly appointed games. Pausanias records that they did so “in common.”

At Iolcos, Medea deceived Pelias’s daughters with a promise to make their father young again, then killed him. His daughters Asteropea and Antinoe had little of him to bury and, according to the people of Mantinea, later lived in Arcadia to escape blame for their father’s death. The material also names Alcestis among Pelias’s daughters and records Ampyx as his son.

Relationship record

Life events

• Pelias and Neleus jointly appointed games at Olympia.(Book 5 · Chapter 8 · 📍 Olympia)
  • With: Neleus
  • “appointed games at Olympia, and after him Pelias and Neleus in common.”
• Medea killed Pelias after deceiving his daughters with a promise of rejuvenation.(Book 8 · Chapter 11 · 📍 Iolcos)
  • With: Medea
  • “After this she took Pelias to boil and cut him up, but his daughters got hardly enough of him to take to burial.”

Book 5 · Chapter 8

• with Neleus (They jointly appointed games at Olympia.) “after him Pelias and Neleus in common”
• with Neleus (They jointly appointed games at Olympia.) “after him Pelias and Neleus in common”

Book 5 · Chapter 17

• child: Alcestis “there are the daughters of Pelias, of whom the name of Alcestis only is inscribed.”

Book 7 · Chapter 18

• child: Ampyx (Pelias is Ampyx's father.) “And Ampyx was the son of Pelias, the son of Æginetus, the son of Deritus”
• parent: Æginetus (Æginetus is Pelias's father.) “And Ampyx was the son of Pelias, the son of Æginetus, the son of Deritus”

Book 8 · Chapter 11

• child: Asteropea (Asteropea is identified among the named daughters of Pelias.) “And if you should turn to the left from the temple of Poseidon, in about five stades you will come to the tombs of the daughters of Pelias. The people of Mantinea say they dwelt here to avoid the vituperations which came upon them for the death of their father. For as soon as Medea came to Iolcos she forthwith plotted against Pelias, really working for Jason’s interest, while ostensibly hostile to him. She told the daughters of Pelias that, if they liked, she could make their father a young man instead of an old man. So she slew a ram and boiled his flesh with herbs in a caldron, and she brought the old ram out of the caldron in the shape of a young man alive. After this she took Pelias to boil and cut him up, but his daughters got hardly enough of him to take to burial. This compelled them to go and live in Arcadia, and when they died their sepulchres were raised here. No poet has given their names so far as I know, but Mico the painter has written under their portraits the names Asteropea and Antinoe.”
• child: Antinoe (Antinoe is identified among the named daughters of Pelias.) “And if you should turn to the left from the temple of Poseidon, in about five stades you will come to the tombs of the daughters of Pelias. The people of Mantinea say they dwelt here to avoid the vituperations which came upon them for the death of their father. For as soon as Medea came to Iolcos she forthwith plotted against Pelias, really working for Jason’s interest, while ostensibly hostile to him. She told the daughters of Pelias that, if they liked, she could make their father a young man instead of an old man. So she slew a ram and boiled his flesh with herbs in a caldron, and she brought the old ram out of the caldron in the shape of a young man alive. After this she took Pelias to boil and cut him up, but his daughters got hardly enough of him to take to burial. This compelled them to go and live in Arcadia, and when they died their sepulchres were raised here. No poet has given their names so far as I know, but Mico the painter has written under their portraits the names Asteropea and Antinoe.”
• with Medea (Medea killed and dismembered Pelias.) “After this she took Pelias to boil and cut him up, but his daughters got hardly enough of him to take to burial.”

Book 10 · Chapter 30

• with Orpheus (interaction) “And next him sits Pelias, with beard and head all hoary, gazing at Orpheus.”

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Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.