Editing Pelops (section)

=== Olympic Games ===
After his victory, Pelops organized chariot races as thanksgiving to the gods and as funeral games in honor of King Oenomaus, in order to be purified of his death. It was from this funeral race held at Olympia that the [[Ancient Olympic Games#Origin mythology|beginnings of the ancient Olympic Games]] were inspired. Pelops became a great king, a local hero, and gave his name to the Peloponnese. Walter Burkert notes<ref>Burkert, ''Homo Necans'' 1983, p 95f.</ref> that though the story of Hippodamia's abduction figures in the Hesiodic ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' and on the chest of [[Cypselus]] (c. 570 BCE) that was conserved at Olympia, and though preparations for the chariot-race figured in the east pediment of the great [[Temple of Zeus, Olympia|temple of Zeus at Olympia]], the myth of the chariot race only became important at Olympia with the introduction of [[chariot racing]] in the twenty-fifth Olympiad (680 BCE). G. Devereux connected the abduction of Hippodamia with animal husbandry taboos of [[Ancient Elis|Elis]],<ref>G. Devereux, "The abduction of Hippodameia as '[[cause|aiton]]<nowiki>' of a Greek animal husbandry rite" ''</nowiki>''SMSR'' '''36''' (1965), pp 3-25. Burkert, in following Devereux's thesis, attests Herodotus iv.30, Plutarch's ''Greek Questions'' 303b and Pausanias 5.5.2.</ref> and the influence of Elis at Olympia that grew in the seventh century.