Saturday, March 17, 2018

Pelops’ Charioteer: Killas

“ The young Pelops became a lover of the god Poseidon who provided him with a chariot drawn by swift--some say winged--horses. He later travelled across the sea to Greece to compete for the hand of Hippodameia, daughter of King Oinomaos (Oenomaus) of Pisa. The king would slay his daughter's suitors as he overtook them in a chariot race, so Pelops bribed the charioteer Myrtilos to tamper with the axle. Oinomaos was killed as a result and Pelops seized control of the kingdom. “ Aaron Astma

Pausanias {5.10.7} At the very edge lies Kladeos, the river which, in other ways also, the Eleians honor most after the Alpheios. On the left from Zeus are Pelops, Hippodameia, the charioteer of Pelops, horses, and two men, who are apparently grooms of Pelops. Then the pediment narrows again, and in this part of it is represented the Alpheios. The name of the charioteer of Pelops is, according to the account of the Troizenians, Sphairos, but the guide [ex-hēgētēs] at Olympia called him Killas.

Walter Leaf: Homer mentions Killa only as a site of the worship 
of the Sminthian Apollo, without any definite note of locality. We have, therefore, only Strabo's informa- tion upon which to go. He tells us (xiii. 1. 62) that " it is in the territory of Adramy ttium near Thebe. It still retains the name of Killa, and there is a temple of the Killaean Apollo. The river Killaios flows past it from Ida. All this is in the direction of the terri- tory of Antandros." He fiirther adds (63) that ** near the temple of Apollo is the tomb of Killos, a great tumulus. It is said that Killos was a charioteer of Pelops, and was ruler in the country." * 
Leaf recommends Frazer's comments on Pausanias above, but I can’t find them. If Killa was a colonist you would think Delphi would be olved





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