In greek mythology, Pelops was the son of Tantalus, king at Mount Sipylus in Anatolia. Zeus liked the latter, and according to some whispers, the king might have been one of the numerous children of the god. Wishing to know if the gods really had the precognition ability, Tantalus killed Pelops and gave his flesh in stew to eat to the gods, who were not fooled and showed their wrath by condemning him to suffer eternal thirst and hunger. He stands in a river that sinks him to the neck, but it lowers as soon as he tries to drink in it, and the branches full with ripe fruit goes away each time he draws his arm to grab one.

The gods resurrected Pelops. Unfortunately, Demeter, who was deeply in grief after the abduction of her daughter Persephone by Hades, absent-mindedly eat the left shoulder of the young hero, which was replaced by an ivory shoulder when his body was reassembled.

Pelops later married princess Kippodameia after he won a chariot race against her father, King Oenomaus of Pisa. Some tell he won thanks to the winged horses Poseidon had given him. Pelops did not know though that Hippodameia had made the charioteer, Myrtilus, to remove the pins of the axle-tree of Oenomaus chariot. Pelops later querelled with Myrtilos and threw him into the sea, but before the latter sank, he cursed his killer. The curse however affected only Pelops' children, and not the hero himself.

The Peloponnese, a well-known greek peninsula, was named after Pelops.