Tantalus (Ancient Greek:ΤάνταλοςTántalos), also calledAtys, was aGreek mythological figure, most famous for his punishment inTartarus: for either revealing many secrets of the gods, for stealingambrosia from them, or for trying to trick them into eating his son, he was made to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches, with the fruit ever eluding his grasp, and the water always receding before he could take a drink. This punishment, although the best-known today, was a more unusual detail in surviving early Greek sources, where variants including a stone suspended above his head are more commonly recorded.[1]
The ancient Greeks used the proverb "Tantalean punishment" (Ancient Greek:Ταντάλειοι τιμωρίαι:Tantáleioi timōríai), in reference to people with nice things who are unable to experience them.[2] His name and punishment are also the source of the English wordtantalize, meaning to torment with the sight of something desired but out of reach; tease by arousing expectations that are repeatedly disappointed.[3] 'The rock of Tantalus' was also used as a proverbial expression byPindar andArchilochus,[4][5] in the same vein as theSword of Damocles, to suggest being unable to enjoy something because attempting to do so places one in a position of perpetual imminent peril.[6]
Plato in theCratylus (395e[7]) interpretsΤάνταλος (Tántalos) asταλάντατος (talántatos) [acc.ταλάντατον:talántaton in the original], "who has to bear much" fromτάλας (tálas) "wretched". The ThirdVatican Mythographer claims that the name means "wishing for a vision".[8]
There may have been a historical Tantalus, possibly the ruler of anAnatolian city named "Tantalís",[10] "the city of Tantalus", or of a city named "Sipylus".[11]Pausanias reports that there was a port under his name and a sepulcher of him "by no means obscure", in the same region.[citation needed]
Tantalus is sometimes referred to as "King ofPhrygia",[12] although his city was located in the western extremity ofAnatolia, whereLydia was to emerge as a state before the beginning of the first millennium BCE, and not in the traditional heartland of Phrygia, situated more inland. References to his son as "Pelops the Lydian" led some scholars to the conclusion that there would be good grounds for believing that he belonged to a primordial house ofLydia.[13][14][15]
Other versions name his father asTmolus, the name of aking of Lydia and, like Sipylus, of another mountain in ancient Lydia. The location of Tantalus's mortal mountain-fathers generally placed him in Lydia;[16] and more seldom inPhrygia[13] orPaphlagonia,[14] all inAsia Minor.
The geographerStrabo states that the wealth of Tantalus was derived from the mines of Phrygia andMount Sipylus. Near Mount Sipylus are archaeological features that have been associated with Tantalus and his house since Antiquity. NearMount Yamanlar inİzmir (ancientSmyrna), where the Lake Karagöl (Lake Tantalus) associated with the accounts surrounding him is found,[citation needed] is a monument mentioned by Pausanias: thetholos "tomb of Tantalus" (laterChristianized as "Saint Charalambos's tomb") and another one in Mount Sipylus,[17] and where a "throne of Pelops", an altar or bench carved in rock and conjecturally associated with his son is found.[citation needed]
Based on a similarity between the names Tantalus andHantili, it has been suggested that the name Tantalus may have derived from that of these twoHittite kings.[18]
Tantalus's grave-sanctuary stood onSipylus[29] but honours were paid him atArgos, where local tradition claimed to possess his bones.[30] InLesbos, there was another hero-shrine in the small settlement of Polion and a mountain named after Tantalus.[31]
The oldest surviving reference to Tantalus is theOdyssey.Odysseus sees him there when he journeys toHades, standing in a pool of water up to his chin beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever Tantalus reached for the fruit, the wind blew the branches out of his reach; whenever he tried to drink, the water receded before he could reach it.[32] However, the crime for which this is the punishment is not mentioned.[6] The earliest account of Tantalus's crime is that found in a fragment of the lostNostoi preserved in theDeipnosophistae ofAthenaeus. Tantalus is punished by Zeus after Zeus swears an oath to give him anything he asks for, and Tantalus asks to be allowed to live like the gods. Zeus is bound by his oath to do this, but as a punishment Zeus places a giant rock above his head so that, although Tantalus has access to a banquet akin to that which the gods enjoy, fear of the rock falling prevents him from ever enjoying it.[6][33]
In other surviving early Greek sources, the stone perpetually hanging above Tantalus's head is the more popular variant of the punishment.[1] The rock is also mentioned in fragments of Archilochus,[5]Alcman,[34]Alcaeus, andPherecydes.[6] The crime for which this is the punishment is, however, absent from the fragments.
Pausanias (c. 110–180 CE) reports that in the Knidian lesche, a building atDelphi full of paintings byPolygnotus depicting different mythological scenes, Tantalus is shown enduring both the punishment of the retreating food and drink recorded in theOdyssey and that of the rock hanging above his head. Pausanias states that Polygnotus is following the tradition of the poet Archilochus, but adds that he does not know whetherArchilochus was the origin of this variant or whether he was following another source.[35] Apollodorus also records both punishments together.[36] Other allusions to the story generally tend to continue to refer to either the rock alone, or the rock and the receding food and water.[37] Further reference to the punishment but without mention of the specific crime are found inHorace (65 BCE–8 CE), who mentions the receding water in the firstSatire,[38]Lucretius (c. 99–55 BCE), who mentions Tantalus's fear of a boulder hanging in the air,[39] andVergil, who in theAeneid mentions a crag hanging over him.[40]
Despite the crime of attempting to feed his son to the gods being the most well-known variant today, in antiquity there were multiple variants reporting different crimes. Most, but not all, of these involve a feast to some degree. References to the attempt to feed the gods his dismembered son appear comparatively late in the surviving sources.
The variant in which Tantalus attempts to feed the gods his dismembered son is, however, clearly familiar to audiences by the time of Pindar (c. 518–438 BCE).[42] In his firstOlympian Ode, Pindar initially alludes to the story in which Pelops is killed,served as food, and partially eaten, by explaining thatClotho, one of the threeFates, revived Pelops in a cauldron, replacing his shoulder with one of ivory.[43] A scholiast commenting on this passage in Pindar reports that according toBacchylides (c. 518–c. 451 BCE), it was Rhea who revived Pelops by placing him in a cauldron.[44]
However, inOlympian 1 Pindar rejects this version, implying that it is a lie and adding that it is better to speak well of the gods.[45][42] He then relates a different account in which Tantalus invited the gods to a meal to repay them for inviting him to feast with them. Nothing went amiss with the meal, but Poseidon, on seeing Pelops, was overcome with desire for him and carried him off in his chariot.[46] The sudden disappearance of Pelops, and the failure of attempts to find him, led envious neighbours to spread rumours that he had been killed, cooked, and eaten. Pindar's choice of words in describing these rumoured events imply that the gods also participated in the act of killing Pelops. Although it is possible Pindar is reporting a variant he was aware of, Douglas Gerber suggests that the implication that the gods participated in the gruesome acts is meant to elevate the horror of the scene, and thus simultaneously make it seem less believable.[47] In a similar vein, in theIphigenia in Tauris ofEuripides,Iphigenia refers to the 'feast of Tantalus' that the gods attended and enjoyed as unworthy of belief.[48] It is unclear, however, whether her denial is that the gods enjoyed the meal, or that they ate it at all, or that Tantalus attempted to feed the gods his son,[49] and whether Euripides meant Iphigenia's denial to follow Pindar's variant in which Tantalus is the victim of the rumours of envious neighbours cannot be established by what is given in the play.[49] In Euripides'sHelen the character of Menelaus, mentions Pelops in relation to a feast, but the feast is referred to one which Pelops himself was 'persuaded' to make.[50] The text, however, is generally considered corrupt, rather than referring to an otherwise unknown variant in which Pelops himself agreed to host a banquet.[51]
After denying that Tantalus's crime was that of the cannibal banquet, Pindar then claims that his offence was stealing nectar andambrosia from the gods – substances which they had used to make him immortal – and giving it to his friends. Zeus's punishment for Tantalus is to hang a boulder above his head, from which he then perpetually flees.[52] It is unclear where Pindar imagines Tantalus's punishment as taking place. Some have argued that in theNostoi Tantalus's punishment took place on Olympus and that Pindar was following this model. Gerber points out, however, that there are no other instances in which a mortal's punishment takes place on Olympus, and adds that it is difficult to imagine that the gods would enjoy the constant presence of the suffering Tantalus at their banquets.[53] The punishment of the hanging rock is also mentioned byElectra in Euripides'sOrestes, where Tantalus is located somewhere between heaven and earth, flying hither and thither in the air (ἀέρι ποτᾶται) in an attempt to escape the bolder above his head. The crime for which this is the punishment is, however, not detailed.[54] A scholiast on the passage states that he was placed in the sky so that he was far enough from Olympus so as not to be able to hear the conversation of the gods, and far enough away from mortals so as not to be able to tell them anything he had already heard.[19] Similarly,Diodorus Siculus (1st century BCE) recounts that his crime was sharing with mortals the intimate conversations of the gods,[55] an explanation whichOvid also gives in theArs Amatoria.[56][57] Apollodorus gives both the theft of ambrosia and the sharing of the secrets of the gods as his crimes.[36]
Likewise, an explanation as to why Tantalus attempted to feed his son to the gods is not found in any sources untilServius (early 5th century CE),[37] who gives as Tantalus's motivation a desire to test the gods.[63] A scholium on Lycophron suggests that this was a gesture of hospitality,[37][64] but gives no explanation as to why it should be interpreted as such.
The story of Tantalus is also reported by theVatican Mythographers. The first mythographer states that it was Ceres who ate Pelops's shoulder, and it was her who gave him the ivory shoulder. The mythographer offers an allegorical interpretation of Ceres's involvement, explaining that she is the deity who ate him because goddess of earth, and earth consumes the bodies of the dead, but leaves the bones.[65] The second and third mythographers also state that it was Ceres who ate part of Pelops, for the same allegorical reason, but does not mention the ivory replacement for the lost part, and instead states that it wasMercury who restored Pelops to life, and explains that this is because Mercury is the god of intelligence.[66][67]
A Scholium on Lykophron suggests that either Tantalus 'was attempting to be hospitable, or to make a significant contribution to theeranos to which the gods had invited him (schol ad Lyc. 152, =ad Ol. 1.40a). The scholiast also notes that according to some it is either Themis or Thetis (the scholium survives in several manuscripts, and the name differs between them) who ate the shoulder.[68]
In a different tradition, Tantalus was implicated in the theft of the gold dog whichRhea had once put to watch over the goat nourishing the infant Zeus when she hid him in a cave onCrete. The story is recorded byAntoninus Liberalis as well as in scholia on Pindar'sOlympian 1 and on theOdyssey.[68]
Antoninus Liberalis reports thatPandareus stole a golden dog who guarded the cave in Crete in which Rhea had hidden him fromCronus. Rhea had initially set the dog to guard the goat which was providing Zeus with milk. Later, after making the goat 'an immortal' Zeus ordered the dog to continue guarding the Cretan cave. Having stolen the dog, Pandareus then gave it to Tantalus for safekeeping. When he later returned and asked for the dog, Tantalus swore an oath that he had never received it. Zeus punished Pandareus for the theft by turning him to stone and Tantalus for swearing a false oath by striking him with a thunderbolt and placing Mount Sipylus on top of him.[69]
Variants of this appear in late sources: scholia on theOdyssey state that Zeus told Hermes to go to Tantalus and get back the dog, and it was Hermes to whom Tantalus lied (but Hermes found and retrieved it anyway), and another variant is reported therein in which Tantalus himself steals the dog.[68] In one version, it was a mechanical dog crafted byHephaestus to guard a temple of Zeus.[70] There were multiple plays, now lost, written about Tantalus in antiquity, and it is generally assumed that they relate to this incident rather than anything involving a feast.[37]
Tantalus appeared inAeschylus' lost playNiobe, which was set after the catastrophic revenge ofArtemis andApollo that left all of Niobe's numerous children lying dead on the ground. The inconsolable Niobe was sitting veiled and speechless at her children's tomb as Tantalus arrived at Thebes, at first not knowing that had transpired; surviving fragments show Tantalus boasting of his lands in unknowing bliss, then trying in vain to comfort his daughter, and in the end escorting her back home to Lydia (as her husbandAmphion had probably perished as well).[71][72]
Tantalus also briefly appears inThyestes, a tragedy by Roman authorSeneca. The ghost of the tormented Tantalus is brought from the Underworld by one of theFuries, and commanded to sow wickedness and enmity between his grandsonsAtreus andThyestes, exiled by their father Pelops due to the murder of their half-brotherChrysippus and further quarrelling over the rulership of their new kingdom. The play's chorus, old men fromMycenae and Argos, declare that they will prevent the imminent crimes, and speak of Tantalus' old offences.[73]
To date all known depictions of Tantalus in ancient art date from the fifth century BCE onwards.[74] Tantalus is depicted on thename vase of theUnderworld Painter – anapulian red-figurevolute-krater illustrating the palace of Hades and Persephone surrounded by scenes from the underworld. He is pictured in the lower right corner of the painting, pointing to a rock hanging over him from which he is attempting to flee.[75] This vase, and the painting of Polygnotes described by Pausanias are to date the only known artistic representations of the punishment of the rock.[74]
He is also shown in an underworld scene on the back lower register of theVelletri Sarcophagus, to the right of the central carving ofCharon in the boat which escorts the departed to the underworld. Tantalus is shown naked, standing in water which reaches up to his knees. The position in which he is holding his hands suggests that he is attempted to raise to his mouth water which he has scooped up in his cupped hands.[75]
^abcdGantz, Timothy (1993).Early Greek myth : a guide to literary and artistic sources. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 531.ISBN0-8018-4410-X.OCLC26304278.
^R. S. P. Beekes,Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 1449.
^George Perrot (2007).History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria And Lycia (in French and English). Marton Press. p. 62.ISBN978-1-4067-0883-7.
^This refers toMount Sipylus, at the foot of which his city was located and whose ruins were reported to be still visible in the beginning of theCommon Era, although few traces remain today. SeeSir James Frazer,Pausanias, and other Greek sketches (later retitledPausanias's Description of Greece).
^Thomas Bulfinch (June 2004).Bulfinch's Mythology. Kessinger Publishing Company. pp. 1855–2004.ISBN1-4191-1109-4.
^abGantz, Timothy (1993).Early Greek myth : a guide to literary and artistic sources. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 536.ISBN0-8018-4410-X.OCLC26304278.
^abGantz, Timothy (1993).Early Greek myth : a guide to literary and artistic sources. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 533.ISBN0-8018-4410-X.OCLC26304278.
^abcdGantz, Timothy (1993).Early Greek myth : a guide to literary and artistic sources. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 534.ISBN0-8018-4410-X.OCLC26304278.
^abGantz, Timothy (1993).Early Greek myth : a guide to literary and artistic sources. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 532.ISBN0-8018-4410-X.OCLC26304278.
^Second Vatican Mythographer 124. (=Pepin, p. 148)
^Third Vatican Mythographer, 21. (=Pepin, p. 249).
^abcGantz, Timothy (1993).Early Greek myth : a guide to literary and artistic sources. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 535.ISBN0-8018-4410-X.OCLC26304278.
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