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• Pelops: The Emergence of a Mythical Personality From Folktale, Ritual and Geography

  5–18.

  András Patay-Horváth

  Views:

  441

  Heroes were generally imagined by the ancient Greeks as historical personalities from a distant past who were remembered even centuries later and whose deeds became legendary. Although this concept is occasionally found even today, it is much more probable and indeed it is generally agreed that mythical heroes were not created in this way, but myths somehow evolved from/in tandem with rituals and/or as aetiological tales. On the other hand, the close connections between folktales and myths were always acknowledged, even if the nature of their relationship remains controversial. In this paper, the mythical biography of Pelops is discussed because I think it offers an instructive case-study illustrating the complexities involved. All the episodes of Pelops’ myths follow distinct folktale patterns and each of them was most probably inspired by different factors such as geography (strange rock formations around Mount Sipylos), popular etymology (the name of the Peloponnese) and ritual (some special cult practices in early Iron Age Olympia). The episodes of the hero’s life (childhood, marriage, kingship) were only loosely connected to each other and they were not amalgamated into a coherent biography until the end of the 19th century.

• Pindar, Pelops and Myrtilos Reconsidered

  133–143.

  András Patay-Horváth

  Views:

  3

  The main mythological narrative in Pindar’s first Olympian ode was often taken in isolation and the poet’s declaration about his intentions in modifying the traditional tale were also taken at face value. Based on the recent clarification of the famous mythological revision concerning the banquet of Tantalos, this paper offers a new overall interpretation of the poem and concludes that Pindar’s handling of the myth did not derive from some personal desire or moral conviction of the poet but from the necessity to praise his patron appropriately. By ingeniously revising the banquet of Tantalos and by exaggerating a relatively small modification he made, Pindar managed to divert the attention of his audience and concealed another change of fundamental importance, i.e. the elimination of Myrtilos from the chariot race of Pelops and Oinomaos.