Tantalus.
Food and water out of reach
Tantalus: Greek Myth, His Punishment and the Feast of Pelopsstands amid water and fruit that withdraw whenever he tries to eat or drink. His punishment turns abundance into perpetual deprivation, while ancient accounts differ over the offense that brought him there.
More than a myth.
The punishment of Tantalus
In 11, stands in a pool beneath laden trees. Water disappears when he bends to drink, and wind lifts the branches when he reaches for fruit. The scene makes desire painfully specific: relief is visible and almost accessible. The English verb tantalize takes its familiar image from this condition.
A guest who violates divine trust
The Epitome associates ’s fate with the misuse of his privileged access to the gods, including disclosure of their secrets and the sharing of . Some traditions add a stone hanging above him. The accounts need not be combined into a single list of identical charges and penalties in every ancient work.
Pelops and the terrible meal
A well-known tradition makes serve his son Pelops to the gods as a test. explicitly challenges that story and gives another account of Pelops’s relationship with . The poet’s refusal is itself evidence: ancient authors argued about the moral implications of inherited myths rather than always repeating them without objection.
Questions about Tantalus
Why can Tantalus never eat or drink?
The fruit and water retreat whenever he reaches them. That repeated frustration is the punishment shows in the underworld.
Did every ancient author accept the feast of Pelops?
No. ’s first ode rejects the claim that the gods ate human flesh and retells the relationship differently.
It’s a family affair.
The stories of Tantalus.
Continue with the ancient accounts.
This story collection does not yet include a full retelling centered on Tantalus. Explore the cited sources below and the connected profiles for more of the surviving accounts.
Ancient voices.
Enduring stories.
Myths have many tellings. These are the ancient works behind this profile, linked to freely available English translations.
Odyssey
Book 11.582–592
Library · Epitome
Epitome 2.1–3
Olympian Ode 1
Tantalus and Pelops · public-domain translation by F. A. Paley