Who was Tantalus in Greek mythology?
Tantalus was a king in Greek mythology and the son of Zeus. He was initially favored by Zeus but betrayed the gods and tried to trick them into eating his son. For this he was eternally punished in the lowest realms of the underworld.
What is the myth of Tantalus?
In the myth of Tantalus, Tantalus took advantage of the gods and revealed their secrets to humankind. He then sacrificed his son and served him to the gods to eat. Tantalus was tortured by the gods by being eternally hungry and thirsty but just out of reach of the sustenance he needed.
How was Tantalus punished?
Tantalus was punished by being forced to stand in a pool of water below a low-hanging fruit tree for all eternity. When he reached for the fruit, the tree branches would move inches from his grasp. When he stooped for water, the water would recede just out of reach.
When did Tantalus live?
Tantalus was said to have been among one of the first generation of humans, so he lived not long after Prometheus made humans from clay and Athena gave them life.
Why did Tantalus feed the gods his son?
Tantalus fed his son Pelops to the gods because he wanted to test if they were truly all-knowing and would recognize his culinary creation as human flesh. Other than Demeter, who accidentally partook, the gods recognized what it was and punished Tantalus for his deception.
How does the myth of Tantalus relate to the concept of hubris?
The myth of Tantalus shows how hubris can lead to serious repercussions. Tantalus was so overly confident in his place among the gods that he thought he could share their secrets and play ghastly pranks on them without any consequence. He was severely punished for his hubris.
Table of Contents
Origins of Tantalus
Accounts of Tantalus’s origins vary, but what is universal throughout is that he was quite wealthy and well-favored by the gods. In most accounts, he was the illegitimate son of Zeus and the human Plouto, but in other myths he is the son of King Tmolus and became king himself. In the legends that name him king, Tantalus was referred to as the King of Lydia, a kingdom surrounding Mount Sipylus in present-day Turkey.
Whether or not he was the son of Zeus, he was certainly treated like one and was frequently invited to Olympus to dine with the gods, an honor he tragically took for granted.
The Crimes of Tantalus
Tantalus’s many affronts were famously the result of his own hubris. He considered himself equal to or above the gods and did not treat them with respect (or serve them appropriate food).
The gods gave him great access to Mount Olympus, thanks to his connections to Zeus. Rather than be grateful, however, Tantalus seemed to think his status among the gods gave him the right to do what he pleased.
Gateway Crimes
Some accounts allege that Tantalus stole sacred ambrosia and nectar from Olympus, brought it back to Earth, and passed it around to his mortal friends. Probably not smart to steal from gods, but if you look at it from a Robin Hood perspective, it’s mildly amusing.
Other stories reveal that Tantalus had a big mouth and spread the gods’ secrets to humans. Betraying the trust of the gods is also not a great idea, but if Zeus whispered some juicy gossip after a flask or two of wine, you’d probably be pretty tempted to share that with someone.
The Worst Crime Imaginable
After getting away with some petty theft and ill-advised gossip, Tantalus takes a pretty significant leap in his criminal enterprises—he gives filicidal cannibalism a try.
It started innocently enough, as Tantalus decided to cook up a great feast for the gods to thank them for the many feasts they shared, or perhaps to make up for his past transgressions. Unfortunately, he really misfired when it came to the menu.
At some point, Tantalus decided he would murder, butcher, and serve up his son Pelops to the gods for dinner as part of a stew. His apparent motive for this unconscionable act was to test the gods’ omniscience.
There were probably less gruesome ways to put the gods’ abilities to the test, but Tantalus clearly considered himself above any sort of law, societal norm, or banquet-hosting etiquette.
The Punishment of Tantalus
The gods, perhaps literally, sniffed out Tantalus’s horrific addition to their stew, and punished him accordingly.
Tantalus was severely and imaginatively punished by Zeus. In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus came across Tantalus in Tartarus, the most loathsome depth of the underworld. There, Tantalus was stuck for eternity, standing in a pool of water underneath the branches of a fertile fruit tree.
Whenever he reached for fruit, the wind would blow the branches just millimeters out of his reach, and whenever he stooped to drink from the pool, the waters receded into the ground. He was destined to be forever barely out of reach of fulfilling his deepest needs.
Tantalus’s agonizing fate has resonated so deeply that it has worked its way into the English language. The punishment of Tantalus—being so close to what you desire but unable to reach it—is the source of the word tantalize.
Some accounts, including Epitome by Apollodorus, take his punishment even further. Beyond the succulent fruits just out of reach, Tantalus had a large stone precariously perched above his head and lived in constant fear that it would finally fall and crush him.
Tantalus’s Family and Legacy
It’s safe to say Tantalus was pretty quickly exiled from Olympus after his ill-fated banquet, not long before he was thereafter sent to the depths of the underworld to be tortured for all eternity. He left behind a family, who, considering his culinary pursuits, were probably quite relieved he was gone. The crimes of Tantalus, however, would haunt generations of his descendants.
Pelops
Believe it or not, Tantalus’s son, Pelops, survived being chopped up and added as the protein to a savory stew. The gods were able to piece him back together and bring him back to life in a magic cauldron (presumably not the same cauldron in which he had been cooked).
Only his shoulder needed to be replaced, since Demeter had absent-mindedly eaten some of the stew before realizing its contents. Pelops went on to be a strikingly handsome man, despite a shoulder pieced together out of ivory.
He was initially taken under the wing of the god Poseidon, who kept him on Olympus and taught him how to drive chariots. When Zeus found out Pelops was still hanging around, he had him kicked off Olympus due to his continued anger at Tantalus. Seems like a pretty bad case of victim-blaming, but Zeus did as he pleased.
Back among the mortals, Pelops became King of Pisa (Greek Pisa, not “leaning tower” Pisa) through marriage and went on to start the first Olympic games. Not a bad resume, considering his humble beginnings as the soup course in a banquet for the gods.[1]
Pelops’s good fortune did not last, however, and after he killed a friend who had helped him nefariously win a chariot race, Pelops and his descendants were cursed. Two of his sons, Atreus and Thyestes, killed their half-brother Chrysippus, and his wife died by suicide. The family descended into such violence and misfortune that its fall became known as “the Curse of the House of Atreus.”
Niobe
Niobe inherited a great deal of her father’s arrogance and learned absolutely nothing from his torturous punishment. She had fourteen children and somehow resisted the urge to serve any of them for dinner, but she could not resist endlessly bragging about her fertility and progeny.
On one occasion, she showed up at a celebration festing Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis. Niobe mocked Leto for only having two children and stated that the festival should be in her honor instead, considering the successes of her fourteen kids. She even bragged that her father had once been welcome at Zeus’s table.
At some point, Apollo and Artemis had enough and were deeply offended to the point that they killed at least twelve of Niobe’s children. Niobe was so devastated that she turned into a stone formation on Mount Sipylus, from which her tears continue to fall to this day.
Broteas
There’s not a lot written about Broteas in Greek mythology, although he also suffered for his unwillingness to humble himself in front of the gods.
Broteas was an excellent hunter, but of course he kept all the credit for himself. He would not pay tribute to Artemis, goddess of the hunt and the same goddess who killed most of Broteas’s nephews and nieces. Artemis didn’t care for Broteas’s insolence and caused him to go so mad that he threw himself onto a funeral pyre and burned to death.
The Myth of Tantalus in Ancient Greek Culture
The myth of Tantalus captured the attention of ancient Greek society, perhaps because of the common themes of eternal punishment and divine justice, its memorable stew recipe, or the agonizing fate of its protagonist.
For whatever reason, Tantalus loomed large in Greek culture. Just as “tantalizing” became a part of the English language, ancient Greeks used the phrase “Tantalian punishment” in reference to those who had wealth or success but were unable to enjoy it.
Further illustrating its relevance to ancient Greek culture, the poet Pindar, who lived around 500 BCE, wrote about the stone of Tantalus in reference to the feeling of the country as a whole. He talks of the lessening troubles of Greece and thanks the gods for turning aside “the stone of Tantalus above our heads, an unbearable hardship for Greece.”[2]
Other ancient Greek writers used Tantalus’s stone in reference to an individual’s mental state—an ongoing anxiety or threat that wouldn’t go away.
The Tantalus story became so prominent due to its role as a central part of early dramas, written and oral mythologies, and visual arts.
Like so many Greek myths, the story of Tantalus made it into Roman mythology as well. One of the earliest examples we still have of a sculpture of Tantalus resides in the Vatican and features him with two other infamous residents of Tartarus.
Comparison with Other Infamous Greek Punishments
Greek mythology has many famous tales regarding creative, torturous punishments, but there literally seems to be a special ring of hell for those exhibiting the cardinal sin of hubris.
Tartarus, the deepest depths of the underworld, has some very famous residents, all of whom were uniquely and eternally sentenced for their arrogance.
Sisyphus
Not far from where Tantalus stoops in vain for water and reaches in vain for fruit, Sisyphus is stuck in one of the most famous of all the Greek eternal punishments. For all time he is destined to push a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down so that he has to start his labors anew.
His crime? Sisyphus, too is being punished for his arrogant attempts to thwart the gods. Sisyphus repeated Zeus’s secrets (never a good idea) and then, upon his death, tricked Persephone into letting him out of Tartarus.
For that, he got the boulder, and his name too has made its way to the English language: Sisyphean is used to describe a futile and endless task.
Ixion
Ixion’s name didn’t become the root of any English words, but he shares a lot of things in common with his brothers in Tartarus.
Ixion also thought he was smart enough to get the best of the gods. He may have even done something more stupid than serving his son for dinner. Ixion tried to get with Zeus’s wife, Hera. This was after Zeus had gotten Ixion off the hook for killing his father-in-law.
Just like Tantalus, Ixion took Zeus’s generosity for granted and tried to get the better of him. It didn’t work out well. Zeus made a cloud shaped like Hera, and when Ixion indeed coupled with it, Zeus saw where Ixion’s loyalties lay. For this, Ixion also took up residence in Tartarus, where he was tied to a fiery wheel that would never stop spinning.
The Enduring Lesson of Tantalus’s Hubris
One of the reasons Greek mythology remains so compelling today is that the lessons taught still resonate. Arrogance, disrespect, and disregard for divine law still have substantial consequences, even if one doesn’t believe in the gods of Olympus.
And while serving one’s child in a stew might seem gruesome and unrealistic, remember that Tantalus was not actually punished for the banquet menu. Tantalus is spending eternity agonizingly close to food and water that he’ll never reach as punishment for his hubris, not for his ghastly stew.
This is the takeaway of the myth of Tantalus and so many other myths: extreme arrogance will land you in your own personal hell. The ongoing use of the word “tantalize,” from this very myth, shows the impact of this myth and how Greek mythology stays with us thousands of years later.[3]
References
- Richards, Jean, and Kat Thacker. 2000. The First Olympic Games: A Gruesome Greek Myth with a Happy Ending. Millbrook Press.
- Race, William H., ed. and trans. 1997. Pindar II: Nemean Odes, Isthmian Odes, Fragments. Harvard University Press.
- Leftkowitz, Mary. 2005. Greek Gods, Human Lives: What We Can Learn from Myths. Yale University Press.