Introduction
Pelops was a legendary king whose descendants founded the House of Atreus. As a child he was famously killed and served to the gods by his father Tantalus as a test of their omniscience; the gods restored him to life, though Demeter had already eaten one shoulder, replaced with ivory.
Family
- Children: Atreus
The Family's First Curse
Pelops won his wife Hippodamia by cheating in a chariot race against her father, then betrayed and killed the charioteer who had helped him — Myrtilus — who cursed Pelops's line with his dying breath. This curse is traditionally cited as the origin of the generations of violence that plague the House of Atreus, culminating in the murders surrounding Agamemnon and Orestes.
As with all figures of Greek heroic legend, sources diverge on many particulars; the account above follows the most widely transmitted classical tradition.