LOVERS’ LEGENDS
then cast a spell upon it. Again they were set to boil, and old Fate went about joining the parts together. She came up short, however, for the shoulder was missing. Demeter, 50 by way of thanking Tantalus for his offering, handed Fate one crafted of lustrous ivory, and light poured out of it, filling even the darkest corner of the hall. Fate fit the missing piece in place, lifted the body whole from the great cauldron, and then, by the will of the gods, the boy was given life again.
Pelops moved out among the guests, and everyone's eyes were on him now: all his homeliness had boiled away, and his beauty glowed from every pore. Poseidon sat riveted, lost in wonder. The wild heart in him was tamed by desire, 60 and he drank in the sight of the boy with the gleaming shoulder. The god chased after Pelops, lifted him into his chariot, and his golden horses flew up and away with them into the sky, to Zeus' palace in Olympus. Meanwhile, Dione, who had not been invited to the feast, was looking high and low for her son, but he had vanished. The queen was frantic. She sent men throughout Sipylus to bring back her child, but search as they might, they found no trace of him. In the end an envious neighbor drew her aside and whispered he had been boiled, and the gods had divvied up 70 the morsels among themselves. Dione's loss, however, was Poseidon's gain. He settled in with Pelops as lover and beloved, and fed his friend ambrosia to make him deathless. Often he took the boy riding in his gold chariot, and patiently taught him to bend the swift winged horses to his will. Pelops loved the great16
