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, 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, 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 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 great bearded god, and hung on his every word. In no time at all his skill as charioteer outshone that of any other man. Poseidon kept the boy close. At feast times, Pelops was always there by his side; filling the god's cup with nectar, pouring for the guests as well. And his own father, Tantalus, was one of the regulars. But he sipped only a portion of his nectar – the rest he smuggled out.         Any man who thinks to fool the gods' eyes with his doings makes a big mistake. Tantalus' thefts caught up with him in the end, and the anger of Zeus deceived fell like a thunderbolt upon the king and all his kin. The lord of gods laid utter waste to Sipylus. He razed the city to the ground and cast Tantalus into the deepest pit of Hades, doomed him to eternal hunger and thirst. Zeus also made Pelops pay for his father's crimes. He yanked him out of Poseidon's arms, stripped him of immortality and chased him from Olympus, sending him back to the fleeting destiny of the human race.         The people of Sipylus, however, remembered their beloved king when they rebuilt their city. They raised up a great tomb for Tantalus on the side of the holy mountain, and often came to pay him homage. And when Pelops made it back from Olympus, they seated him on the throne and named him ruler in his father's place.