Tantalus (Ancient Greek:ΤάνταλοςTántalos), also calledAtys, was aGreek mythological figure, most famous for his punishment inTartarus: for revealing many secrets of the gods and 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.
Tantalus was the father ofPelops,Niobe, andBroteas. He was a son ofZeus[1] orTmolus[2] and a woman namedPluto. Thus, like other heroes in Greek mythology such asTheseus (his great-great-grandson) and theDioskouroi, he had one divine and one mortal parent.
The Greeks used the proverb "Tantalean punishment" (Ancient Greek:Ταντάλειοι τιμωρίαι:Tantáleioi timōríai) in reference to those who have good things but are not permitted to enjoy them.[3] 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.[4]
Plato in theCratylus (395e) interpretsΤάνταλος (Tántalos) asταλάντατος (talántatos) [acc.ταλάντατον:talántaton in the original], "who has to bear much" fromτάλας (tálas) "wretched".
There may have been a historical Tantalus, possibly the ruler of anAnatolian city named "Tantalís",[6] "the city of Tantalus", or of a city named "Sipylus".[7]Pausanias reports that there was a port under his name and a sepulcher of him "by no means obscure", in the same region.
Tantalus is sometimes referred to as "King ofPhrygia",[8] although his city was located in the western extremity ofAnatolia, whereLydia was to emerge as a state before the beginning of the first millennium BC, 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.[9][10][11]
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' mortal mountain-fathers generally placed him in Lydia;[12] and more seldom inPhrygia[9] orPaphlagonia,[10] 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, is a monument mentioned byPausanias: thetholos "tomb of Tantalus" (laterChristianized as "Saint Charalambos' tomb") and another one in Mount Sipylus,[19] and where a "throne of Pelops", an altar or bench carved in rock and conjecturally associated with his son is found.
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.[20]
Karagöl ("The black lake") inMount Yamanlar,İzmir,Turkey, associated with the accounts surrounding Tantalus and named after him as Lake TantalusPrint of the fall of Tantalus. Preserved in theGhent University Library.[24]
Tantalus became one of the inhabitants ofTartarus, the deepest portion of the Underworld, reserved for the punishment ofevildoers; thereOdysseus saw him.[25] The association of Tantalus with the underworld is underscored by the names of his mother Pluto ("riches", as in gold and other mineral wealth), and grandmother, Chthonia ("earth").
Tantalus was initially known for having been welcomed toZeus' table inOlympus, likeIxion. There, he is said to have abused Zeus'hospitality and stolenambrosia and nectar to bring it back to his people, and revealed the secrets of the gods.[26]
Most famously, Tantalus offered up his son,Pelops, as a sacrifice. He cut Pelops up, boiled him, andserved him up in a banquet for several gods in order to test their omniscience. The gods became aware of the gruesome nature of the menu, so they did not touch the offering; onlyDemeter, distraught by the loss of her daughter,Persephone, absentmindedly ate part of the boy's shoulder.
Clotho, one of the threeFates, was ordered by Zeus to bring the boy to life again. She collected the parts of the body and boiled them in a sacredcauldron, rebuilding his shoulder with one wrought of ivory made byHephaestus and presented by Demeter.
The revived Pelops grew to be an extraordinarily handsome youth. The godPoseidon took him to Mount Olympus to teach him to usechariots. Later, Zeus threw Pelops out of Olympus due to his anger at Tantalus.
Tantalus's punishment for his act was to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches raised his intended meal from his grasp. Whenever he bent down to get a drink, the water receded before he could get any.
Over his head towers a threatening stone (mentioned in Pindar's 8th Isthmian ode, lines 10–12) like the one thatSisyphus is punished to roll up a hill.[27] This fate has cursed him with eternal deprivation of nourishment.
In a different story, Tantalus was blamed for indirectly having stolen the gold dog whichRhea had once put to watch over infant Zeus (in another version, it was a mechanical dog crafted byHephaestus to guard a temple of Zeus[28]). Tantalus's friendPandareus stole the dog and gave it to Tantalus for safekeeping. When asked later by Pandareus to return the dog, Tantalus denied that he had it, saying he "had neither seen nor heard of a golden dog." According toRobert Graves inThe Greek Myths, this incident is why an enormous stone hangs over Tantalus's head.[29] Others state that it was Tantalus who stole the dog, and gave it to Pandareus for safekeeping.
Tantalus was also the founder of the cursedHouse of Atreus in which variations on these atrocities continued. Misfortunes also occurred as a result of these acts, making the house the subject of many Greektragedies. Tantalus's grave-sanctuary stood onSipylus[30] but honours were paid him atArgos, where local tradition claimed to possess his bones.[31] InLesbos, there was another hero-shrine in the small settlement of Polion and a mountain named after Tantalos.[32]
^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.
^This certainly pertains to her as the daughter of Atlas and thus, the sister of the Pleiades. Compare Hyginus,Fabulae 82 & 83; Ovid.Metamorphoses6.174
Pindar,The Odes of Pindar including the Principal Fragments with an Introduction and an English Translation by Sir John Sandys, Litt.D., FBA. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1937.Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Suida,Suda Encyclopedia translated by Ross Scaife, David Whitehead, William Hutton, Catharine Roth, Jennifer Benedict, Gregory Hays, Malcolm Heath Sean M. Redmond, Nicholas Fincher, Patrick Rourke, Elizabeth Vandiver, Raphael Finkel, Frederick Williams, Carl Widstrand, Robert Dyer, Joseph L. Rife, Oliver Phillips and many others.Online version at the Topos Text Project.
