Talk:Tantalus/Archive 1

Archive 1

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Tantalus in Greek mythology is a Titan, a supposed son of Hades (because of his immense patrimony).

I'm sceptical of this. Isn't he a son of Zeus, maybe a king of some kind? No way a Titan.

... so I demoted him to King.

Does anyone have a photo of a tantalus (the drink stand kind!)? -- S

Who puts a table and doesnt write a legend on it? i dont know where to find the info thats related on the table

Pluto

I altered the reference to Pluto (as differentiated from Plouto) in the first paragraph as the old reference implied that the name was only used by the Romans, Pluto is an alternate, Greek name for Hades that was more commonly used by the Romans. So, I simply shortened it to "god of the underworld."

Plethora of Tantaloi

An anonymous editor added the following to the article:

There is another Tantalus in Greek mythology. This second Tantalus, a son of Broteas and presumably a descendent of the first Tantalus, ruled over the Peloponnesian city of Pisa, and was the first husband of Clytaemnestra. This Tantalus was killed by Agamemnon, who forcibly made Clytaemnestra his wife.

My initial comment, after looking through some mythology links was to say: "this information seems to be incorrect... from what I've read, Tantalus was Broteas' father, not son..."

After further reading, I was prompted to note instead that: "Hmmm... it seems there's actually more than one other Tantalus. A number of them, in fact... see [1]"

I considered leaving the "additional Tantalus" section in the article, but decided it was better to remove it since from what I'm reading, it appears to be the equivalent of a poorly structured parenthetical phrase [no insult intended] by comparison to even a scanty listing of all the "other Tantaloi" out there... It seems, for example, that the Tantalus being referred to in the text I've excised from the article is Tantalus 3, whose grandfather or great-grandfather was also Tantalus [albeit Tantalus 1]. I don't know enough about the reckoning of Greek dynasties, tyrannies or mythology to even start trying to sort it out enough to develop it at this time, so that I leave in someone else' capable hands... Tomer^talk 09:02, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

In the other characters of the same name section, which I found quite useful, actually, given that there isn't a wikipedia entry for each of them, it says that Tantalus was Thyestes son killed by Atreus while an infant. But in the play by Seneca, Tantalus is shown walking with his father and carrying on a conversation far above what an infant would be saying...I'll probably edit that in a few days if no one disagrees. Matveiko 04:50, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism

This page has been vandalised. It actually contains the phrase "Tantalus is known for being a complete POOP HEAD on Zeus' table in Olympus." If anyone knows the original text that occured there, that would be easiest. There seems to be more vandalism and innapropriate language and wording throughout the article. I will see what I can do about fixing that. I wish people wouldn't do that. Great Green Arkelseizure 02:27, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Picture?

That's not a Goya painting. That's Pikachu. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 192.101.250.250 (talk) 07:05, 9 December 2006 (UTC).

That's because someone vandalized it. Again. 64.121.35.146 06:12, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

neo-pagan slant

'archetypal shamanic initiation' and other such phrases are artificially placed over greek myth. Such theories aren't really accepted amongst scholars nowadays. (I have a Classics degree you know.) The article should stick to the bare facts of the story of tantalus rather than interpretation of them. It may be original research, if not it's certainly from outdated works such as Frazer or Graves.Merkinsmum 20:40, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

...in which case they certainly should be attributed to Frazer or Graves. Perhaps Merkinsum will edit in the most recent scholarship, to restore balance. --Wetman 21:11, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

new section "interpretation"

I've made a new section for possible interpretations and moved the interpretations there. I may have inadvertently removed sources for these bits, not sure if they were there. Anyway, whoever is making these interpretations please add your sources in. As far as I'm concerned the story is mainly to reaffirm that sacrifice etc are taboo, extrapolating beyond that is not my particular interest. I don't tend to 'interpret' the myths. A lot of Greek tragedy existed to reaffirm what was seen as 'abnormal'. I'll track down a source for this and add it, that's a job for tomorrow though.Merkinsmum 21:49, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Thus he was a king in the primordial world

Primordial is a link, yet none of the different list of links seems to correspodent to this one... (normally I tent to change links when linking to disambiguation pages, but was unable for this one, so I wanted to point that out) Great Slovakia (talk) 22:03, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Parricide means mostly killing parents, not children

Twice in the article there is the world "parricide", referring to Tantalus killing of his son (it's called "infanticide"), and also referring to what will happen later, when Orestes will kill his mother Clytemnestra (this is called "matricide") So generally what was taboo was not only parricide (which usually means parents or even only the father as in "patricide"), but generally killing one's parents and children. I think it should be corrected, only I can't think of a general word encompassing children too. User:Shantimar —Preceding undated comment added 16:57, 6 June 2009 (UTC).

Location of the Black Lake

+38° 33' 28.00", +27° 13' 0.36"

Google Map —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.127.128.2 (talk) 17:38, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Father of Tantalus

The article says "Other versions name his father as Tmolus". Who are the sources for this claim in literature?

ICE77 (talk) 08:54, 25 May 2011 (UTC)

Myth or legend?

According to my understanding of the Wikipedia articles “mythology” and “legend”, which are, admittedly rather unsatisfactory in their definition of both terms, Tantalus is a legendary figure not a mythological one. I have not changed the article because there are many other articles which have the same “error”. AnnaComnemna (talk) 19:46, 8 November 2014 (UTC)

tantalizing feast

Wasn't there a REAL classical personage who attempted to create a banquet of increasingly exquisite foods, to continually tempt the increasingly full guests to continue eating indefinitely? Anyone remember who that was? 2604:2000:F22D:5100:DD8B:9F8:8944:F165 (talk) 11:45, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

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Genealogical tree (Dione)

The genealogical tree is only valid when it applies to Dione, one of possible four wives of Tantalus. This should be added to the caption for accuracy.

ICE77 (talk) 05:15, 25 February 2018 (UTC)

"...but there is no doubt that he was Greek"

What on earth does this mean? He's a fictional character from Lydia. How can we have "no doubt" about his ethnicity? Furius (talk) 16:35, 5 November 2023 (UTC)

I don't know either – maybe that statement was meant to say that he's from Greek mythology, but that's clear anyway. The statement doesn't seem to serve a useful purpose, so I have just deleted it. Gawaon (talk) 18:17, 5 November 2023 (UTC)

Cheers, thanks! Furius (talk) 17:04, 6 November 2023 (UTC)