Chapter 15: The Line of Tantalos
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♠ Od 11.582-92 – Homer, Odyssey
Aye, and I saw Tantalus in violent torment, standing in a pool, and the water came nigh unto his chin. He seemed as one athirst, but could not take and drink; [585] for as often as that old man stooped down, eager to drink, so often would the water be swallowed up and vanish away, and at his feet the black earth would appear, for some god made all dry. And trees, high and leafy, let stream their fruits above his head, pears, and pomegranates, and apple trees with their bright fruit, [590] and sweet figs, and luxuriant olives. But as often as that old man would reach out toward these, to clutch them with his hands, the wind would toss them to the shadowy clouds. Greek Text
♠ Nostoi fr 4 PEG – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, p. 96, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.
Athen. 7, 281 b The poets also say that the ancient hero Tantalus was fond of pleasure. At any rate, the author of The Return of the Atreidai says that he, when he had arrived among the gods, and had begun to live among them, received from Zeus the permission to ask for whatever he wished. And the poet says that he, being a man insatiably disposed to the enjoyment of his appetites, asked that above all a memory of these be made, and that he may live in the same manner as the gods. And that Zeus being angry over these demands, fulfilled his wish because of his promise; but so that he might not enjoy what was before him, but be incessantly tormented, he suspended a rock over his head, on account of which he might not be able to enjoy any of the things set before him. (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Archilochos 91.14-15 W – Iambi et Elegi Graeci 1, p. 35, ed. M.L. West. Oxford 1971.
May the rock of Tantalos not hang over this island (Transl. Timothy Gantz)
♠ Alkman 79 PMG – Poetae Melici Graeci, p. 59, ed. D. L. Page. Oxford 1962.
♠ Alkaios 365 LP – Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta, p. 276, ed. E. Lobel and D.L. Page. Oxford 1955.
♠ Is 8.9-10 – Pindar, Isthmian Odes
Since [10] one of the gods has turned aside for us the stone of Tantalus above our heads Greek Text
♠ Pherekydes 3F38 FGrH – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 73, ed. F. Jacoby. 2 nd ed. Leiden 1957.
SCHOL. T HOM. IL. 24.617 . . . Pherekydes in Book 7: «Niobe comes back under distress to Sipylos, and she sees her city turned upside down and a rock hanging over Tantalos; she prays to Zeus to become stone; tears flow from it and it looks towards the North». s. F 124-26 (Transl. E. Bianchelli) Greek Text
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Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, March 2024.
