I was investigating last night about the whole thing of greeks having lovers and mistresses outside of marriage (Because Pelops is a hoe, sadly lmao).
I read so far that, for a man the age of Pelops, it wouldn't be seen as weird for him to take male lovers, and they didn't neccesarily had to have a big age gap. But Pelops would still want to keep that type of affair in a level of secrecy, specially if he wanted to be in the receiving end (bottoming).
So i don't think he had too many random male lovers really, because he still wouldn't get what he would want out of one, which is connection.
There were also high-courtisans (The equivalent of a geisha for ancient greece) but i don't think he liked their company that much neither.
Hook-ups in general weren't doing it for him because they still had the same problem he had with Hippodamia which were that he didn't feel any true emotional connection. He didn't feel seen by any of the women (or men) he might have hooked up with.
He missed Poseidon. He missed the hours of unserious, silly foreplay, the care and thought every touch carried, the tenderness of their aftercare, and most importantly, feeling like he wasn't being judged for anything.
With anyone else, he felt like an actor performing. You're not sleeping with Pelops, no. You're sleeping with the king, with the man that has walked among gods, with your savior, the conquistador, etc.
He really didn't feel nothing of a new spark. Nothing that hadn't already died with Hippodamia. So those wild parties he organized stopped being a escape and became another chore for him.
And i think that is partly why he ended up turning to a nymph for a mistress. Danais, just like Poseidon, was superior to Pelops just by pure nature. She did not care about any titles Pelops could have possesed, not when she had met him first and foremost as "The lanky guy Poseidon found around" (Yes, in my interpretation, Danais and Pelops go a little way back).
He wasn't searching a romance, but the level of friendship he had with Danais was enough to give him that connection and intimacy he craved, and Danais not putting him in any kind of pedestal helped him relax.
And they met enough times for Danais to end up pregnant, ups
