In the myth of Pelops in Ol. 1.25-93, Pindar makes various selections, elaborations and innovations of the mythic material available to him. Kakridis has shown that the mention of Zeus' house (line 42), of the anxiety of one of Pelops' parents (46) and of wondrous horses (87) makes the story conform to that of Ganymede, which Pindar cites as a parallel in lines 43–5, while other choices, which cannot be so explained, Kakridis attributes to Pindar's striving for variation.
Krischer has further shown that in lines 65–94, the explicit parallel with Ganymede is replaced by an implicit parallel with Achilles. Achilles has an ally in battle (Thetis), a divinity to whom he prays alone by the sea-shore (ll. i 349-50), who suddenly appears to him (ll. i 359), and to whom he claims to prefer a short life with honour to a long inglorious one (ll. xviii 155-21).