In
Greek mythology, King
Oenomaus (also
Oenamaus; ) of
Pisa, the father of
Hippodamia, was the son of
Ares, either by the
naiad Harpina (daughter of the
river god Phliasian
Asopus, the armed (
harpe) spirit of a spring near Pisa) or by
Sterope, one of the
Pleiades, whom some identify as his consort instead. He married, if not Sterope, then Evarete of
Argos, the daughter of
Acrisius and
Eurydice. Yet others give Eurythoe, daughter of
Danaus, either as his mother or consort. His children besides Hippodamia were
Leucippus (who perished because of his love for
Daphne) and
Alcippe (mother of
Marpessa by
Evenus). Pausanias, who is generally skeptical about stories of humans descending from gods, makes Oenomaus son of a mortal father, Alxion. John Tzetzes adduces a version which, in the same vein, calls Oenomaus son of a Hyperochus by Sterope. The genealogy offered in the earliest literary reference,
Euripides'
Iphigenia in Tauris, would place him two generations before the
Trojan War, making him the great-grandfather of the Atreides,
Agamemnon and
Menelaus. His name
Oinomaos signifies him as a
wine man.