A son of Jupiter and Pluto who was welcomed to the gods' table, betrayed what he learned there, and became the eternally thirsty founder of the Pelopid house.1
Homer finds Tantalus in the underworld standing in a lake whose water drains away whenever he tries to drink, while laden branches rise beyond his reach. The Odyssey gives the torment without explaining the crime that caused it.2
Apollodorus adds the stone suspended above him and reports that Tantalus was punished for disclosing divine mysteries to mortals and trying to share ambrosia with his companions.3
Hyginus makes him the privileged son of Jupiter and Pluto: Jupiter admitted him to the banquets and confided his plans to him, but Tantalus repeated those plans to mankind. His punishment combines receding water, retreating apples, and a threatening stone.4
Pausanias located the founder's grave on Mount Sipylus and distinguished him from a younger Tantalus buried at Argos. The local monument anchors the dynasty in Lydia rather than treating its founder only as a shade in Hades.5
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story