Editing Pelops (section)

=== Shrines ===
[[File:Remains of the Pelopeion in Olympia on October 14, 2020.jpg|thumb|Remains of the [[Pelopion]] in [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]]]]

The shrine of Pelops at Olympia, the [[Pelopion]], "drenched in glorious blood",<ref>Pindar, ''First Olympian Ode''</ref> described by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]<ref>Pausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.5.13.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Pelops 5.13.1–3]</ref> stood apart from the temple of Zeus, next to Pelops' gravesite by the ford in the river. It was enclosed with a circle of stones. Pelops was propitiated as a [[chthonic]] deity, at night with the offering of a black ram. His remains were contained in a chest near the sanctuary of Artemis Kordax (Pausanias 6.22.1), though in earlier times a gigantic shoulder blade was shown; during the [[Trojan War]], [[John Tzetzes]] said, Pelops' shoulder-blade was brought to [[Troy]] by the Greeks because the Trojan prophet [[Helenus]] claimed the Pelopids would be able to win by doing so.<ref>Adrienne Mayor, ''The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times'' (Princeton University Press, 2000) discusses the uses made of giant fossil bones in Greek cult and myth.</ref> Pausanias was told the full story: the shoulder-blade of Pelops was brought to Troy from [[Pisa (Greece)|Pisa]], the rival of Elis; on the return, the bone was lost in a shipwreck, but afterwards recovered by a fisherman, miraculously caught in his net.<ref>Pausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+5.13.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Pelops 5.13.4]</ref>

Giant-sized bones were and are often found in Greece, the remains of gigantic prehistoric animals. In ancient times there was obviously no knowledge of dinosaurs or mammoths, and such findings were believed to be actual remains of legendary heroes or demigods, and to reflect the supposedly supernatural stature of humans of the long-bygone [[Greek Heroic Age|Heroic Age]]. The bones' provenance was then determined according to local legends about ancient burials, with political expedience also playing a major role, helped along by convenient dreams, visions or priestly auguries.