1st Edition
Transformations of Pelops Myths, Monuments, and Cult Reconsidered
Introduction; PART I Pelops and His Family; 1. Childhood and Marriage; 2. Successful Ruler and Miserable Father; PART II The Making of Pelops from Different Perspectives; 3. Folklore and Ethnography – Resurrection and the Missing Shoulder Blade; 4. Art and Archaeology – Olympia and the Cult of Pelops; 5. Linguistics and Geography – The Hero of the Peloponnese; PART III Pelops Afterwards; 6. Modest Remembering and Occasional Revival; 7. Popularity due to an Ancient Mistake; Conclusion; Guide to Further Reading; Appendix: Selected Sources on Pelops and his Descendants.
Biography
András Patay-Horváth is archaeologist and lecturer in ancient history at Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest). His field of interest is ancient Olympia with special emphasis on the temple of Zeus. He has published a few contributions related to Pelops and his most recent book was The Origins of the Olympic Games (2015).
"Over the last two decades András Patay-Horváth has established himself as the world expert on Pelops, who supposedly gave his name to the Peloponnese. With the publication of this wide-ranging, lucid, skilfully-argued and well-illustrated book, Patay-Horváth’s challenging ideas about the hero and his origins (was he once an aurochs?) are brought together for the first time in a convenient and accessible form in English." - Daniel Ogden, University of Exeter
"...This well-researched book offers a substantial challenge to conventional notions of the significance of the myths concerning Pelops and the origin of the Olympic sanctuary, one which scholars in the field will not be able to simply brush aside. ... perhaps its greatest value will lie in its contribution towards stimulating further debate on a topic so vital to our understanding of the origins and significance of the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia and the development of Greek cult and myth in general." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review
