Chrysippus (Son of Pelops)

In Greek mythology, Chrysippus (/kraɪˈsɪpəs, krɪ-/; Greek: Χρύσιππος) was a divine hero of Elis in the Peloponnesus. Sometimes referred to as Chrysippus of Pisa (Greece).[1]

Laius, Chrysippus and Pelops

Family

Chrysippus was the bastard son of Pelops, king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus, and the nymph Axioche[2] or Danais.[3]
Mythology

Chrysippus was kidnapped by the Theban prince Laius, his tutor, who was escorting him to the Nemean Games, where the boy planned to compete. Instead, Laius ran away with him to Thebes and raped him, a crime for which he, his city, and his family were later punished by the gods.

Chrysippus's death was related in various ways. One author who cites Peisandros as his source claims that he killed himself with his sword out of shame.[4] Hellanicus of Lesbos and Thucydides writes that he was killed out of jealousy by Atreus and Thyestes, his half-brothers, who cast him into a well.

The death of Chrysippus is sometimes seen as springing from the curse that Myrtilus placed on Pelops for his betrayal, as Pelops threw him from a cliff after he helped Pelops win a race.

Euripides wrote a play called Chrysippus, whose plot covered Chrysippus' death. The play is now lost. The play was given in the same trilogy that included The Phoenician Women.

Pausanias 6.20.7

There is within the Altis by the processional entrance the Hippodameium, as it is called, about a quarter of an acre of ground surrounded by a wall. Into it once every year the women may enter, who sacrifice to Hippodameia, and do her honor in other ways. The story is that Hippodameia withdrew to Midea in Argolis, because Pelops was very angry with her over the death of Chrysippus. The Eleans declare that subsequently, because of an oracle, they brought the bones of Hippodameia to Olympia.

See also

List of rape victims from history and mythology

References

Bibliography:

• Pindar, Olympian Ode, I (476 BC);
• Apollodorus Library and Epitome 3.5.5 (140 BC);
• Hyginus, Fables, 85. Chrysippus; 243. Women who Committed Suicide (1st c. AD);
• Pausanias, Description of Greece, 9.5.5-10, 6.20.7 (c. 160 - 176 AD);
• Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, Book XIII, 602 (c. 200 AD);
• Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks, ii, 34, 3 - 5 (150 - 215 AD)

Stephen Fry in Mythos (2019) ISBN 978-1452178912
Scholia on Euripides, Orestes, 4; on Pindar,Olympian Ode, 1. 144
Pseudo-Plutarch, Greek and Roman Parallel Stories, 33

Gantz, p. 489.

Modern sources
Gantz, Timothy (1993). Early Greek Myth. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kerenyi, Karl (1959). The Heroes of the Greeks. New York/London: Thames and Hudson.

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