Tantalus
heroA king who offended the gods by serving them his own son as a meal. His punishment in Tartarus — standing in water that recedes when he tries to drink, beneath fruit that pulls away when he reaches for it — gave us the word "tantalize."
The Myth
Tantalus was a king of Lydia and a son of Zeus, privileged enough to dine with the gods on Olympus. But his arrogance and cruelty knew no bounds. To test the gods' omniscience, he killed his son Pelops, cooked him, and served him at a divine banquet.
The gods immediately recognized the horror. None ate except Demeter, distracted by grief for Persephone, who consumed a shoulder. The gods restored Pelops to life with an ivory shoulder replacing the one Demeter had eaten. For his unspeakable crime, Tantalus was cast into Tartarus.
His punishment was exquisitely cruel: he stood in a pool of crystal-clear water beneath branches heavy with ripe fruit. Whenever he bent to drink, the water receded. Whenever he reached for fruit, the branches pulled away. He existed in a state of eternal hunger and thirst, surrounded by sustenance he could never reach.
Parents
Zeus
Children
Pelops, Niobe
Symbols
Fun Fact
The element tantalum was named after Tantalus because, like the king, it "cannot absorb" — tantalum is almost completely resistant to acid.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth: