Oenomaus

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A legendary king of Pisa in ancient Elis who challenged suitors to a chariot race ; a second-century Greek Cynic philosopher from the city of Gadara
2. The mythical ruler of Pisa who was killed in a chariot race against Pelops ; a Cynic thinker from Gadara who criticized oracles and popular religion
3. In Greek myth, the king of Pisa whose daughter's suitors had to outrace him ; a Gadarene philosopher of the Cynic school known for mocking traditional beliefs

Etymology: Oenomaus is the name of a figure from Greek myth: the king of Pisa in the Peloponnese, who had a daughter, Hippodamia, and who forced every suitor to race him in a chariot. He would give his own horses a head start, and if the suitor lost he was killed. Thirteen suitors died this way until Pelops bribed Oenomaus's charioteer, Myrtilus, to loosen the linchpins of the king's wheels, and Oenomaus was thrown from his chariot and dragged to death. The name is a compound of Greek "oinos", wine, and "mainesthai", to rage or be mad, so it has been read as "wine-mad" or "mad for wine," though the ancient sources do not agree on what it was meant to suggest. As a modern English noun, the name is used mostly for the Greek mythological figure and occasionally as a title for works about him. Its appearance in English is a learned borrowing from Latin "Oenomaus" and Greek "Oinomaos", which is why the Greek ending survives in the Latinized form.