Regardless, the family of Pelops would endure terrible tragedy. Hippodamia’s father challenged all of his daughters’ suitors to a chariot race, which he always won because of his unbeatable horses. With the help of the royal servant Myrtilus, Pelops rigged the king’s chariot to fall apart. Pelops won the race and married Hippodamia, but he had to kill Myrtilus when the servant tried to sleep with his new wife. It is uncertain whether the family curse came about because of Pelops’ murder of Myrtilus or the blasphemy of Tantalus. Crime and Punishment: Eternal Damnations as handed down by the Ancient Greek Gods.The Hell of Tartarus, Ancient Greek Prison of the Damned.
The resurrected son of Tantalus, Pelops, went on to be worshipped in the region of lower Greece, which is named the Peloponnese after him. Pelops is sometimes credited with starting the family curse because of the way he won his wife, the princess Hippodamia. But the gods were not fooled. They brought the boy back to life and punished Tantalus by placing him in Tartarus, the Underworld. There he stands in a pool of water that evaporates when he leans down to take a drink. Above him is a vine blooming with fruit that the wind moves out of reach whenever he reaches up to take a bite. Tantalus’ punishment gave us the English word “tantalizing.” King Tantalus was beloved by the gods, who came to dine with him at his home on earth. But out of secretly held spite against the immortals, Tantalus murdered his son and fed the Olympians cooked human flesh.
King Tantalus and Pelops of the House of Atreus This story is an example of the Archaic Greek belief that guilt was inheritable and a person’s misfortune could be attributed to the crimes of an ancestor. The Ancient Greeks often spoke of the Heroic Age, when nymphs and satyrs cultivated the mountains and gods played with mortals. Among the Greek myths that take place in the Heroic Age is the story of the House of Atreus. The royal progenitor of this family, Tantalus, committed such an atrocity against the gods that his descendants were cursed forever.
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