Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/113

 THE GREEK HEROES 99 he ruled in Tiryns with his wife Andromeda, and from there built Mycenae. 129. A more recent family, yet one that even before the Dorian migration was powerful in Argos and a large part of the surrounding Peloponnesus, was that of Tan- talus, who, at the same time, dwelt upon Mount Sipylus in Asia Minor. He is a mythological figure similar to Atlas, the mountain god, who bears up the heavens ; and his name, too, seems to mean " bearer." To him, as the son of Zeus, the gods vouchsafed their confidential inter- course, but by his gross covetousness and his presump- tion he forfeited their favor. Therefore he was cast down to the lower world, and there stood, tormented by hunger and thirst, in the midst of water, under a tree loaded with fruits ; for water and tree alike receded as often as he stretched out his hand toward them. Ac- cording to another legend a rock hung over his head constantly threatening to fall upon him. 130. The children of Tantalus were Niobe and Pelops, after whom the Peloponnesus (' island of Pelops ') is said to have been named. Pelops sued for the hand of Hip- podamia (' tamer of horses J ), the daughter of king Oeno- maiis of Elis, and won her as a wager in a chariot race with her father, who lost the race, and perished, through the treachery of his charioteer Myrtilus. The preparations for this contest were represented in the eastern pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia. Atreus, the son of Pelops, was ruler of Mycenae after the death of Eurystheus. According to the older legend, which is followed in the Iliad, his brother Thyestes inherited the kingdom from him in a lawful manner. On the other hand, the later epic poets and the tragic