Pelops : son of Tantalus. In childhood he was killed & cooked by his father, who served his flesh to the gods to see if they could tell it was not that of a beast. Demeter inadvertently ate part of his shoulder. The gods brought Pelops back to life, replacing his lost part by ivory, & punished his father with everlasting torture. Later, Pelops, to win the hand of Hippodamia, had to defeat her father Oenomaus, king of Elis, in a chariot race. He bribed the king’s charioteer to wreck the chariot & won the bride. But he refused to give the charioteer his promised reward & threw him into the sea. The dying man cursed Pelops & this curse continued to work its effects on Pelops’ family. Succeeding to the throne of Oenomaus, Pelops conquered the rest of the peninsula & named it Peloponnesus – Greek for “Pelops’ island”.
... Vol. 2, p. 60 2. Actually Tantalos was the founder of the Achaean dynasty; Pelops was his son, who had two sons, Atreus and Thysetes. Thysetes and his sons were killed by Atreus. Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Atreus. Orestes was the son of Agamemnon, and with his decline and death, the dynasty of Pelops was exhausted. The new dynasty that followed was that of the Dorians. Page 25... throne and still later added Sparta to his kingdom. But from his ascension started the decline. By the end of the age that had opened with the Siege of Troy, the Achaean power was spent; the dynasty of Pelops 2 was exhausted, and the people waited patiently for a saner dynasty. About the year 1104 BC, Dorians invaded Greece. Hence, there came about the contact of five cultures — Cretan, Mycenaean ...
... await in his stride when the southern and northern Achaians Gazing with dull distaste now over their severing isthmus Hate-filled shall move to the shock by the spur of the gods in them driven, Pelops march upon Attica, Thebes descend on the Spartan? Then shall the hour now kept in heaven for us ripen to dawning, Then shall Victory cry to our banners over the Ocean Calling our sons with her voice... embraced them, Whom had the island cities offended, stormed by the Locrian, Wave-kissed homes of peace but given to the sack and the spoiler? Was then King Atreus just and the house accursèd of Pelops, Tantalus' race, whose deeds men shuddering hear and are silent? Look! they endure, their pillars are firm, they are regnant and triumph. Or are Thyestean banquets sweet to the gods in their savour... Thebes who with Leitus led on his thousands. "Loudly thou vauntest thy freedom Ionian Minos recalling, Lord of thy southern isles who gildst with tribute Mycenae. We have not bowed our neck to Pelops' line, at Argos' Iron heel have not crouched, nor clasped like thy time-wearied nations, Python-befriended, gripped in the coils of an iron protection, Bondage soothed by a name and destruction ...
... hexameters, he noticed, and he read on. "And men too live disguised in the sunlight and never from their birth to their death shalt thou see the mask uplifted. Nay, Page 955 thou thyself, O Pelops, hast thou seen even once the daemon within thee?" 2 There the hexameters ceased and the next moment the physical page reappeared with its native lettering. But sweet, harmonious, clear in his ...
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