Myth Library · Contest And Divine Aid

Poseidon Gives Pelops the Winged Chariot

1 source witness · 1 source-scoped variant · reviewed 2026-08-30

Pindar rejects the banquet in which the gods consume Pelops. Poseidon carries the youth to Zeus, later hears his prayer, and gives him a golden chariot with winged horses for the deadly race against Oenomaus.

Canonical narrative

Pindar begins by refusing an older horror. He will not repeat the account in which Tantalus cuts Pelops apart and serves him to the gods. In Olympian 1, Poseidon desires the living youth, carries him away in a golden chariot, and brings him to the house of Zeus. The ode treats divine desire and removal as the beginning of a bond, not as proof of a harmless mortal childhood.

When Pelops returns, the gate of Oenomaus is marked by dead suitors. The king will give Hippodameia only to the man who defeats him in a chariot race, and death waits for failure. Pelops goes to the sea and calls upon Poseidon. He asks the god to remember their bond and give him the speed that can break Oenomaus's power.

Poseidon answers with a golden chariot and horses whose wings do not tire. Pelops wins the race and takes Hippodameia as his wife. Pindar does not use the sabotage by Myrtilus that appears in other tellings. His version joins desire, prayer, divine equipment, lethal competition, marriage, and the sacred memory of Pelops at Olympia without blending those later variants into the ode.

Episodes in this myth

Episode 1

Poseidon carries Pelops to Zeus

Poseidon desires Pelops and carries him away in a golden chariot to the house of Zeus.

Episode 2

Pelops prays at the sea

Facing a contest that has killed earlier suitors, Pelops calls on Poseidon to remember their bond and grant him victory.

Episode 3

The winged chariot wins the race

Poseidon’s golden chariot and tireless winged horses carry Pelops to victory over Oenomaus and marriage with Hippodameia.

Participants and roles

Poseidon

god who carries Pelops to Zeus and later gives him the golden chariot and winged horses

god who carries Pelops to Zeus and later gives him the golden chariot and winged horses.

Pelops

mortal youth desired by Poseidon who later prays for aid in the chariot race

mortal youth desired by Poseidon who later prays for aid in the chariot race.

Hippodameia

woman whose marriage is made the prize of her father’s deadly race

woman whose marriage is made the prize of her father’s deadly race.

Oenomaus

king defeated by Pelops in the lethal chariot contest

king defeated by Pelops in the lethal chariot contest.

Source-scoped variants

Pindar’s Pelops in Olympian 1

Poseidon carries Pelops to Zeus and later gives him the golden chariot and winged horses that defeat Oenomaus.

What differs: Pindar rejects the cannibal-banquet account and does not use the later sabotage by Myrtilus. The ode makes divine aid and the winged team decisive.

Greek Classical · Ancient Greece

Source witnesses

EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed

Odes of Pindar

Pindar; translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien · 1990

Entry Olympian 1 · Line 25-45; 65-89

Olympian 1 preserves Poseidon’s desire, the removal of Pelops, the prayer, the golden chariot, the winged horses, and victory over Oenomaus.

Open reviewed source