Myrtilus- Greek DemigodDemigod"Charioteer of Oenomaus"

The Charioteer of Oenomaus

Myrtilus was the son of Hermes and the trusted charioteer of King Oenomaus of Pisa in Elis. Oenomaus, a son of Ares, possessed divine horses and an invincible chariot. Having received a prophecy that he would die at the hands of his son-in-law — or, in darker tellings, driven by desire for his own daughter Hippodamia — Oenomaus challenged every suitor to a chariot race from Pisa to the Isthmus of Corinth. A dozen or more princes had died when Pelops arrived to make his attempt.

The Conspiracy

Pelops, armed with winged horses given by his former lover Poseidon, still feared Oenomaus's divine steeds. He approached Myrtilus with a bribe: half the kingdom and a night with Hippodamia in exchange for sabotage. In Apollodorus's telling, Hippodamia was the conspirator — she fell in love with Pelops at first sight and approached Myrtilus herself. Either way, Myrtilus agreed and replaced the bronze linchpins of Oenomaus's chariot wheels with ones made of wax. When the wax melted during the race, the wheels flew off and Oenomaus was dragged to death by his own horses, tangled in the reins.

Murder and Curse

After the victory, Pelops broke his promise. Myrtilus pressed his claim — tried to force himself on Hippodamia, in Apollodorus's account — and Pelops threw the charioteer from a cliff into the sea. As Myrtilus fell, he cursed Pelops and all his descendants. The curse carried the weight of Hermes's anger over his murdered son, and it fell on the House of Pelops: Atreus fed Thyestes his own children, and the killings did not stop until Orestes stood before Athena's court in Athens, generations later.

Hermes honored his son by placing him among the stars as the constellation Auriga, the charioteer. The stretch of the Aegean where Myrtilus drowned became the Myrtoan Sea.