Tantalus

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This article is about the mythological character. For other uses, see Tantalus (disambiguation).

The Greek Underworld
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Persephone Hades Minos Aeacus	Rhadamanthys Charon Cerberus
Geography:
Acheron Cocytus Tartarus Lethe Elysion	Styx Phlegethon Asphodel Meadows Erebus
Famous inmates:
Ixion Sisyphus	Tantalus The Titans
Related:
Greek mythology	Greek religion

In Greek mythology Tantalus (Greek Τάνταλος) was a son of Zeus<ref>Euripides, Orestes.</ref> and the nymph Plouto ("riches")<ref>Plouto is not to be confused with the god of the underworld. Lydia was rich in gold.</ref> Thus he was a king in the primordial world, the father of a son Broteas whose very name signifies "mortals" (brotoi)<ref>Noted by Kerenyi 1959:57.</ref> Other versions name his father as Tmolus "wreathed with oak",<ref>A scholium on Euripides.</ref> son of Sipylus, a king of Lydia. Both Tmolus and Mount Sipylus are names of mountains in ancient Lydia. Thus, like other Greek heroes such as Theseus, or the Dioskouri, Tantalus had both a hidden, divine sire and a mortal one. Tantalus' mortal mountain-fathers placed him in Lydia; otherwise he might be located in Phrygia (Strabo, xii.8.21) or Paphlagonia, all in Asia Minor. Tantalus became one of the inhabitants of Tartarus, the deepest portion of the Underworld, reserved for the punishment of evildoers.

His children were Pelops—eponym of the Peloponnesus—the unfortunate Niobe, and Broteas. The identity of his wife is variously given: Dione, whose name simply means "The Goddess", perhaps the Pleiad with that name; or Eurythemista, a daughter of the river-god Xanthus; or Euryanassa, daughter of Pactolus, another river-god, both of them in Anatolia; or Clytia, the child of Amphidamantes (Graves 1960, section 108).

The geographer Strabo, quoting earlier sources, states that the wealth of Tantalus was derived from the mines of Phrygia and Mount Sipylus. Near Mount Sipylys, archaeological features associated with Tantalus and his house since Antiquity are, in fact, Hittite. On Mount Yamanlar some two km east of Akpınar are two monuments mentioned by Pausanias: the tholos tomb of Tantalus (Christianized as "Saint Charalambos' tomb") <ref>Various sites called the "tomb of Tantalus" have been shown to travellers since the time of Pausanias; the most accessible today is in Izmir (ancient Smyrna]]), a monumental work that is actually the tomb of a sixth-century ruler.</ref> and the "throne of Pelops", in fact a rocky altar. A more famous rock-cut carving mentioned by Pausanias is the Great Mother of the Gods (Cybele to the Greeks), said to have been carved by Broteas, but in fact Hittite.

1 Story of Tantalus
2 Other characters with the same name
3 Related terms
4 Notes
5 Sources and references
6 External links
7 Spoken-word myths - audio files

[edit] Story of Tantalus

Tantalus is known for having been welcomed to Zeus' table in Olympus, like Ixion. There he too misbehaved, stole ambrosia, brought it back to his people,<ref>Pindar, TFirst Olympian Ode.</ref> and revealed the secrets of the gods<ref>Euripides, Orestes, 10.</ref>. He also offered up his son, Pelops, as a sacrifice to the gods, an archetypal story of shamanic initiation in which he cut Pelops up, boiled him, and served him up as food for the gods.

The gods were said to be aware of his plan for their feast, so they didn't touch the offering; only Demeter, disturbed by the rape of her daughter Persephone, "did not realize what it was" and ate of the boy's shoulder. Fate, ordered by Zeus, brought the boy to life again (she collected the parts of the body and boiled them in a sacred cauldron), rebuilding his shoulder with one wrought of ivory made by Hephaestos and presented by Demeter.

Thus reconstituted, Pelops was brought back to life with new qualities. Reinforcing the initiatory theme, the revived Pelops is kidnapped by Poseidon and taken to Olympus to be the god's lover.

The Greeks of classical times claimed to be horrified by Tantalus' doings, and accused Tantalus of trying to trick the Olympian gods back into their older identities by offering them a sacrifice-banquet of human flesh.

The kernel of truth embodied in this tale reinforces Olympian suppression of human sacrifice, which had apparently been offered in earlier times, especially to Demeter in her earlier embodiment as the Great Goddess, but which was now taboo. Alternatively, Tantalus can be seen as a Promethean figure who divulges divine secrets to mortals and presides over sacred initiations consisting of mystic death and transfiguration. His grave-sanctuary stood on Sipylos <ref>Pausanias 2.22.3.</ref> but hero's honours were paid him at Argos, where local tradition claimed to possess his bones<ref>Pausanias 2.22.2.</ref> and on Lesbos there was another hero-shrine in the little settlement of Polion and a mountain named for Tantalos<ref>Stephen of Byzantium, noted by Kerenyi 1959:57, note 218.</ref>

Tantalus' punishment, now proverbial for temptation without satisfaction, 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, like that of Sisyphus.<ref>This detail was added to the myth by the painter Polygnotus, according to Pausanias (10.31.12), noted in Kerenyi 1959:61. </ref> It is from this story that the word tantalizing comes.<ref> [1]</ref>

In a separate story, he was also blamed for having stolen the dog of Hephaestus (god of metals) (alternatively, he convinced his friend, Pandareus to do so).

There is a similarity between the names Tantalus and Hantili, the latter a name of two Hittite kings. Thus, there may be a loose historical connection between the mythical Tantalus and the Bronze Age Hittite kings, who likewise ruled over Asia Minor.

In Robert Graves' historical novel, Hercules, My Shipmate, Graves appears to claim that Tantalus was a member of an invading Greek tribe (after the Peloponnesians?) who was condemned to his torment in Tartarus for refusing to reject his partriarchal deities in favor of the local version of Ashtoreth.

[edit] Other characters with the same name

There are two other characters named Tantalus in Greek mythology, both minor figures and both descendants of the above Tantalus. Broteas is said to have had a son named Tantalus, who ruled over the city of Pisa in the Peloponnesus. This Tantalus was the first husband of Clytemnestra. He was slain by Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, who made Clytemnestra his wife. The third Tantalus was a son of Thyestes, who was murdered by his uncle Atreus, and fed to his unsuspecting father, Thyestes

[edit] Related terms

The name "Tantalus" is the origin of the English word "tantalize". The idea is being that when a person tantalizes someone else, that person is making them like Tantalus: there is something desirable that is always just out of that person's reach.

A Tantalus, by an obvious analogy, is also the term for a type of drinks decanter stand in which the bottle stoppers are firmly clamped down by a locked metal bar, as a means of preventing servants from stealing the master's liquor. The decanters themselves, however, remain clearly visible!

The chemical element tantalum (symbol Ta, atomic number 73) is named for the mythological Tantalus.

[edit] Notes

[edit] Sources and references

Homer, Odyssey XI, 582-92
Apollodorus, Bibliotheke III, v, 6
Apollodorus, Epitome II,1-3
Ovid, Metamorphoses IV, 458-9; VI, 172- 76 & 403-11.
Robert Graves, The Greek Myths 1960, 1992. section 108, etc.
[[Karl Kerenyi, 1959. The Heroes of the Greeks pp 57-61 et passim
Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911: "Tantalus"

[edit] External links

The story of Tantalus, fully developed compiled from selected primary sources to highlight the shamanic and promethean aspects of the story. By Pindar's time this view would have been rejected.

[edit] Spoken-word myths - audio files

The Tantalus myth as told by story tellers
1. Zeus and Tantalus, (including Pelops and Poseidon), read by Timothy Carter
Bibliography of reconstruction: Homer, Odyssey, 11.567 (7th c. BCE); Pindar, Olympian Odes, 1 (476 BCE); Euripides, Orestes, 12-16 (408 BCE); Apollodorus, Epitomes 2: 1-9 (140 BCE); Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI: 213, 458 (8 CE); Hyginus, Fables, 82: Tantalus; 83: Pelops (1st c. CE); Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.22.3 (160 - 176 CE)