Pelops’s Family Tree

About Pelops →

Family

• Hippodamia(spouse),Atreus(child),Pittheus(child),Thyestes(child)— Marriage

  Pelops won Hippodamia by defeating her father Oenomaus in a chariot race. Their sons Atreus, Thyestes, and Pittheus founded rival dynasties whose feuds cursed the house for generations.

• Tantalus(parent),Broteas(sibling),Niobe(sibling)

  Tantalus, king of Sipylus, fathered Niobe, Pelops, and Broteas — children who inherited their father's entanglement with the gods and his cursed legacy.

  ⚠ Apollodorus (Epitome 2.2) names Dione, daughter of Atlas, as their mother; other sources give Euryanassa or Eurythemista.

• Axioche(spouse),Chrysippus(child)— Consort

  Pelops fathered Chrysippus by the nymph Axioche, an illegitimate son whose beauty attracted Laius's obsession and whose murder deepened the bloodguilt on the House of Pelops.

  ⚠ Some sources name Danais rather than Axioche as the mother; Apollodorus (Epitome 2.10) does not name her.

• Poseidon(spouse)— Consort

  Poseidon took the young Pelops to Olympus as his beloved and cupbearer, later giving him a golden chariot with winged horses to win Hippodamia's hand.

Enemy of

• Oenomaus

  Oenomaus challenged all of Hippodamia's suitors to a chariot race, killing those he overtook. He had slain twelve to eighteen princes before Pelops defeated him through treachery.

Slew

• Myrtilus

  Pelops threw Myrtilus from a cliff into the sea after the charioteer tried to claim his promised reward of a night with Hippodamia. Myrtilus cursed Pelops and all his descendants as he fell.

• Oenomaus

  Oenomaus died when his chariot collapsed during the race against Pelops. Myrtilus, Oenomaus's own charioteer, had replaced the bronze linchpins with wax at Pelops's behest. Tangled in the reins, the king was dragged to death by his own horses.

Slain by

• Tantalus

  Tantalus murdered his son Pelops, butchered his body, and served the flesh to the Olympian gods as a test of their omniscience. The gods restored Pelops to life and condemned Tantalus to eternal punishment.

Member of

• Elysium

  The greatest heroes and the most favored of the gods dwell in Elysium after death, freed from the sorrows of Hades. Achilles, Peleus, Pelops, Menelaus, Cadmus, Harmonia, and Diomedes earned their place among the blessed dead.

Associated with

• Chrysippus,Laius

  Laius abducted the young Chrysippus, son of Pelops, while a guest at Pelops's court. This crime — a violation of xenia — brought Pelops's curse upon Laius and the royal house of Thebes.

• Myrtilus,Oenomaus

  Myrtilus sabotaged his master Oenomaus's chariot on Pelops's behalf, replacing bronze linchpins with wax. Pelops had promised him half the kingdom and Hippodamia's favors in exchange.

• Demeter

  When Tantalus served his son Pelops to the gods, Demeter — distracted by grief over Persephone — unknowingly ate his shoulder. When the gods restored Pelops to life, Hephaestus replaced the missing shoulder with one of ivory.

• Hephaestus

  After the gods restored Pelops to life, Hephaestus crafted an ivory shoulder to replace the one Demeter had unknowingly consumed at Tantalus's sacrilegious feast.

• Zeus

  Zeus ordered the restoration of Pelops to life after Tantalus served the boy's flesh to the gods, and later punished Tantalus with eternal torment in Tartarus for the crime.