[5]
For he had arms and horses given him by Ares, and he
offered as a prize to the suitors the hand of his daughter, and each suitor was bound to
take up Hippodamia on his own chariot and flee as far as the Isthmus of Corinth, and Oenomaus straightway pursued him, in full
armour, and if he overtook him he slew him; but if the suitor were not overtaken, he was
to have Hippodamia to wife. And in this way he slew many suitors, some say twelve;1 and he cut off the heads of the suitors and nailed them to his
house.2
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1 The number of the slain suitors was twelve according to Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 156 and the Scholiast on Eur. Or. 990; but it was thirteen according to Pindar and his Scholiasts. See Pind. O. 1.79(127)ff., with the Scholia on 79(127), where the names of the suitors are given. A still longer list of their names is given by Paus. 6.21.7, who says that they were buried under a high mound of earth, and that Pelops afterwards sacrificed to them as to heroes every year.
2 According to Hyginus, Fab. 84, when Pelops saw the heads of the unsuccessful suitors nailed over the door, he began to repent of his temerity, and offered Myrtilus, the charioteer of Oenomaus, the half of the kingdom if he would help him in the race.
Apollodorus. Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Includes Frazer's notes.
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