Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/412

 382 The European Sky-god^

mounted on the car of Ares, would (after sacrificing a ram to Zeus''^) go in pursuit and, if he caught them, would slay him. In this way he slew a dozen or more suitors, and nailed their heads to his house. '^^ When Pelops came to try his luck, Hippodamia fell in love with him and per- suaded Myrtilus, the charioteer of Oenomaus, not to insert the linch-pins of his master's car. Oenomaus was thrown and, being entangled in the reins, was dragged along and killed or, according to others, was despatched by Pelops, who thereby won his bride and became king of Pisa. Now we may be very sure that romantic attachment, which in Alexandrine times — if not earlier — became the principal feature in these folk-tales, had originally nothing to do with them. If the young hero married the old king's daughter, it was merely in order to confirm his claim to the throne by obtaining a native sanction, so to speak, for the foreign successor.'^^* The myths of Sithon and Oenomaus contain at least a hint of the real motive. The adventurer might gain the kingdom by a display of personal prowess. That was his object from first to last ; and tales of the bride-race, no less than tales of the king's challenge to all strangers, presuppose the primitive rule that the king must be the strongest man of the district.

Another constant element in these stories is the death- penalty affixed to the would-be king who cannot beat his opponent in the fight or wrestling-match or race. This again takes us back to primitive times, when the king who

" Diod., 4. 73. See further the vase-paintings figured and discussed in Class. Rev., xvii., 271 f.

'^ Schol. rec. Pind. 01., i. 114, states that Oenomaus was constructing a temple to Ares with the skulls of the suitors. This is supported by Tzetz. in Lye. Alex., 159 ; but may be a trait borrowed from the myth of Cycnus {supra, p. 377) or from that of Antaeus (ib.).

'^ Dr. Frazer tells me that he has investigated at some length the question of the succession to the kingdom in classical antiquity and is about to publish his results in the forthcomng third edition of the Golden Bough.