Chapter 12 Chapter 12 Tantalus

Tantalus was the son of Zeus, who ruled Sipyrus of Lydia and was famous for his wealth.Because of his noble birth, the gods respected him very much.He could dine at the same table as Zeus without avoiding the conversation of the gods.But his vanity made him really unworthy of heavenly blessings, so he began to do evil to the gods.He divulged the secrets of their lives; stole mead and elixirs from their tables, and distributed them among mortal friends.He hid at home a golden dog that had been stolen from the temple of Zeus in Crete.Tantalus hid the dirt, refused to hand it over, and stole the golden dog for himself.One day, he invited the gods to his home.In order to test whether the gods knew everything, he had his son Pelops killed, and then fried and roasted, and made a table of dishes for them.Demeter, the goddess of grain, was in a state of anxiety at the banquet because she missed her daughter Persephone who had been snatched away. Only she tasted a piece of shoulder blade out of politeness.The other gods had already seen through his trick, and threw the torn boy's limbs into the basin one after another.Crotone, the goddess of fate, took him out of the basin and brought him back to life. Unfortunately, a piece of his shoulder was missing, which was eaten by Demeter, and he had to fill it with ivory.

Tantalus thus offended the gods.He was so sinful that he was thrown into hell by the gods, where he suffered and was tortured. He was standing in the middle of a pool of deep water with the waves rolling just under his chin.But he endured a fiery thirst, unable to drink a drop of cold water, although the cold water was right at his mouth.He had only to bend down and try to drink from his mouth, and the water flowed away from him in an instant, leaving him alone on a level ground, as if some demon had worked it out and drained the pool dry.At the same time he was very hungry.Behind him was the shore of the lake, and on it grew a row of fruit trees, laden with fruit, whose branches, bent under the weight of the fruit, hung over his forehead.As long as he looks up, he can see the juicy pears, bright red apples, fiery red pomegranates, fragrant figs and green olives on the trees.These fruits seemed to greet him with a smile, but when he stood on tiptoe to pick them, there would be a strong wind blowing the branches into the air.Apart from these torments, the most terrible torment was the constant fear of death, for a great stone was suspended from his head, ready to fall at any moment, and crush him to pieces.

Tantalus defied the gods and was condemned to hell, where he endured the triple torment without end.