King

Tantalus

Τάνταλος

Overview

Mythic king punished eternally in the Underworld and ancestor of the cursed House of Atreus.

Heroic Age

Fruit, water, eternal punishment

Unknown or primordial.

Family Cycle

Tantalus belongs to the dynasty whose story connects Atreus and Thyestes with Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Orestes and the cycle of inherited revenge.

Beyond Antiquity

Tantalus still appears in the modern world through language, science, medicine, astronomy or culture.

Today: Chemical element 73.

Named after Tantalus. The name recalls his inability to reach the water surrounding him, reflecting tantalum's resistance to chemical attack.

Today: To tempt someone with something desirable that remains just out of reach.

The word derives from Tantalus, whose punishment left food and water eternally close to him but impossible to obtain.