Chapter XXI: Tantalus. Pelops

In the land of Phrygia, which lies in Asia Minor, there was once a king named Tantalus, whom the gods loaded with all manner of favours. They gave him great wealth, so that he was richer than any other king, and they treated him as a friend and came to his house as guests, and sometimes they allowed him to ascend to Mount Olympus in one of their chariots and to drink nectar and eat ambrosia at their table. But Tantalus was presumptuous, and turned the friendship with which the gods honoured him to bad uses, for he stole nectar and ambrosia and gave them to other men to taste, and he also repeated things that he had heard the gods speak of among themselves, about which he ought to have kept silence. He even once invited the gods to a banquet in order to try and deceive them, and for this purpose he killed his beautiful young son Pelops, and cut him in pieces and roasted the flesh; and when the gods sat down to the banquet he brought in the flesh and laid it before them, thinking that they would eat it without knowing what it was. The goddess Demeter was at this time in great trouble because her daughter Persephone had been stolen away from her, and as she sat buried in sad thoughts, she eat a {76} shoulder-piece without paying attention to what she was doing. But the other gods did not eat any of the flesh, for they knew directly what it was, and they were very angry with Tantalus. Zeus commanded that Pelops should come to life again, and he was even more beautiful than before, but his right shoulder was missing, for Demeter had eaten it. The goddess could not replace it, but she took a piece of ivory and cut out a shoulder, which she fitted into the right place, so that it looked like the other limbs, only it was more white and shining.

After this the gods would have nothing more to do with Tantalus, and as they no longer blessed his fields or flocks, his prosperity was now at an end, for the fields produced miserable crops, and the flocks were diminished by plagues and diseases, and also by the ravages of wolves and lions. Tantalus became worse and worse, and committed many other crimes, and after his death the gods laid upon him a never-ending punishment. He found himself standing in beautiful clear water which reached up to his chin, and close above his head there hung branches of magnificent fruit trees quite weighed down with the quantity of fruit they bore, but whenever he tried to sip the water it sank before him till there was nothing to be seen but the black earth, and whenever he tried to gather some fruit the branches raised themselves into the air, so that though he was parched with thirst and was perpetually straining to quench it, if but for a moment, he was never able to reach either the water or the fruit.[1]

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After the death of Tantalus, his son Pelops was king of Phrygia. But there came another king, with an army of soldiers, who fought against him and drove him away, so that he was obliged to leave his country and travel into strange lands. After some time he came to the city of Elis, in Greece, where at that time, there was a king called Oenomaus who had a lovely daughter named Hippodamia. A great many heroes desired to marry her, and the king had sent to ask the Oracle which of them he should choose for her husband, but the answer that he received was that when his daughter married, he himself would die. He at once determined that his daughter should never marry; and as he had two horses that could run like the wind and there were none in the whole country that could compare with them in speed, he said that anyone who wished to marry his daughter must compete with him in a chariot race, and if he won the race he should have the maiden for his wife, but if he failed to do so he must die. Hippodamia was so beautiful that many heroes were willing to risk their lives for the chance of winning her, and agreed to the conditions. At some distance from the city there stood an altar to Poseidon, which was the goal, and on each occasion the princess drove with the suitor for her hand. Oenomaus used to let them start on in front whilst he remained behind to sacrifice a ram to the gods, and when the sacrifice was offered, he mounted the chariot with his lance in his hand, and urged on the horses to their utmost speed. The race never lasted long, for he very soon overtook the suitor and pierced him through the back with his lance, so that he fell down dead from the chariot.

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Thirteen heroes had already lost their lives, and Oenomaus thought that he had found a very good way of preventing his daughter from ever being married. But Pelops heard of the beautiful Hippodamia, and though he heard, too, of the cruel king who put all her suitors to death, he resolved to set out for Elis and try his chance of winning the maiden, for he was a true hero, brave and fearless. It was a prize well worth trying for, for whoever won it would not only have the beautiful princess for his wife, but would also inherit the kingdom, for Oenomaus had no other child. Pelops came to Elis, and Oenomaus told him, as he had told the others, that he must be prepared to race with him, and fixed the race for the following day. The king had outrun many swifter horses than those of Pelops, and if the hero had not set to work cunningly he must have lost his life, but he had thought of a plan by which he might get the better of the king, if he could secure the help of the man to whom was entrusted the care of the horses and chariot of Oenomaus. He watched until this man took the horses to bathe in the river, and he followed him there to have an opportunity of speaking to him privately and promised him a great reward if, on the next day, he would leave out some necessary part of the king's equipment, so that he might be delayed in the race. Oenomaus was such a cruel man that his servants had no affection for him, and the man promised Pelops that he would help him to win the race.

The next day, many people came to the open space outside the city where the race was to be run. They felt sorry for the hero, for his horses were far less {79} strong and spirited than those of the king, which pawed the ground with impatience, and snuffed the air in their eagerness to set out. Oenomaus told his daughter to get into the chariot with Pelops, and when he had the beautiful maiden sitting by his side, Pelops felt how happy he would be if he could obtain her for his wife, and he urged on his horses with all his might. Meanwhile Oenomaus took a sacrificial knife and killed a ram, and then he laid a part of the flesh in the flame of the fire that burnt on the altar, and prayed to the gods to enable him to get the better of Pelops and kill him. When the sacrifice was ended, he mounted his chariot, with the reins in his left hand and a sharp-pointed lance in his right hand, and the moment he shook the reins, the horses started off at their utmost speed, and the chariot could not be seen for the dust that it raised. He came close to Pelops, and raised his lance to smite him. But the unfaithful servant had taken out the nails which prevent the wheel from slipping off the axle, and just as Oenomaus was overtaking the other chariot, the wheel rolled on one side, and the chariot turned over. The king was thrown out, and he fell upon a stone and was killed instantly.

So Pelops was the victor, and the sentence of the Oracle was fulfilled. As soon as the beautiful Hippodamia had ended her mourning for her father, she was married to Pelops, who became king of Elis and ruled the country well and wisely. Long after his death the Greeks still remembered him, and named the great peninsula in which Elis lies, Peloponnesus, or the Island of Pelops.

[1] From this story comes the English word 'to tantalize.'

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