Tantalus
Sign in to savethumb|300px|Tantalus on an Apulian red-figure volute krater, 330-320 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen.
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Tantalus is a figure from ancient Greek mythology, depicted here in a red-figure pottery vessel from around 330-320 BC. The image serves as a historical artifact showing how ancient Greeks visually represented their mythological stories on ceramic vessels.
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Article
13 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Historical background
- Family
- Mythology
- Punishment in Hades
- Feasting
- The golden dog
- In classical drama
- Tantalus in art
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
thumb|300px|Tantalus on an Apulian red-figure volute krater, 330-320 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen.
Tantalus (), also called Atys, was a Greek mythological figure, most famous for his punishment in Tartarus: for either revealing many secrets of the gods, for stealing ambrosia 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.