Hippodamia - Courtship

Courtship

Having grown to manhood, Pelops wanted to marry Hippodamia. King Oenomaus, her father, fearful of a prophecy that claimed he would be killed by his son-in-law, had killed thirteen or eighteen suitors of Hippodamia after defeating them in a chariot race and affixed their heads to the wooden columns of his palace. Pausanias was shown what was purported to be the last standing column in the late second century CE; the same author mentions that Pelops erected a monument in honor of all the suitors before himself, and enlists their names, which are as follows.

1. Marmax
2. Alcathous, son of Porthaon
3. Euryalus
4. Eurymachus
5. Crotalus
6. Acrias of Lacedaemon, founder of Acriae
7. Capetus
8. Lycurgus
9. Lasius
10. Chalcodon
11. Tricolonus (descendant of another Tricolonus, who was a son of Lycaon)
12. Aristomachus
13. Prias
14. Pelagon
15. Aeolius
16. Cronius
17. Erythras, son of Leucon
18. Eioneus, son of Magnes

Pelops came to ask for Hippodamia's hand and prepared to race Oenomaus. Worried about losing, Pelops went to the seaside and invoked Poseidon, his former lover. Reminding Poseidon of their love ("Aphrodite's sweet gifts"), he asked Poseidon for help. Smiling, Poseidon caused a chariot drawn by winged horses to appear. In an episode that was added to the simple heroic chariot race, Pelops, still unsure of himself (or alternatively, Hippodamia herself), convinced Oenomaus' charioteer, Myrtilus, a son of Hermes, to help him win. Myrtilus was convinced by Pelops or Hippodamia promising him half of Oenomaus' kingdom and the first night in bed with Hippodamia. The night before the race, while Myrtilus was putting Oenomaus' chariot together, he replaced the bronze linchpins attaching the wheels to the chariot axle with fake ones made of beeswax. The race began, and went on for a long time. But just as Oenomaus was catching up to Pelops and readying to kill him, the wheels flew off and the chariot broke apart. Myrtilus survived, but Oenomaus was dragged to death by his horses. Pelops then killed Myrtilus (by throwing him off a cliff into the sea) after the latter attempted to rape Hippodamia.

As Myrtilus died, he cursed Pelops. This was the source of the curse that haunted future generation of Hippodamia's and Pelops' children, including Atreus, Thyestes, Agamemnon, Aegisthus, Menelaus and Orestes.