Source-groundedThe Odyssey
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Character · Individual

Tantalus

Published entity metadata

Read-only identity and editorial metadata.

Canonical name
Tantalus
Disambiguator
None
Kind
Character
Scope
Individual
Editorial note
No editorial note published.

Aliases

0

No aliases recorded.

Location presence

Phase 6 currently covers 24 processed books.

1
lake of Tantalus’s punishment1 observation
·Remembered

Tantalus stood chin-deep in the lake of his punishment.

See evidence text
“‘I saw also the dreadful fate of Tantalus, who stood in a lake that reached his chin; he was dying to quench his thirst, but could never reach the water, for whenever the poor creature stooped to drink, it dried up and vanished, so that there was nothing but dry ground—parched by the spite of heaven. There were tall trees, moreover, that shed their fruit over his head—pears, pomegranates, apples, sweet figs and juicy olives, but whenever the poor creature stretched out his hand to take some, the wind tossed the branches back again to the clouds. ”

Claims

1
·Remembered

Tantalus stands chin-deep in a lake yet cannot drink, while fruit-laden branches retreat whenever he reaches for them.

See evidence text
“Tantalus, who stood in a lake that reached his chin; he was dying to quench his thirst, but could never reach the water, for whenever the poor creature stooped to drink, it dried up and vanished, so that there was nothing but dry ground—parched by the spite of heaven. There were tall trees, moreover, that shed their fruit over his head—pears, pomegranates, apples, sweet figs and juicy olives, but whenever the poor creature stretched out his hand to take some, the wind tossed the branches back again to the clouds”

Additional evidence

Evidence records not already represented by a claim.

1
·Remembered
“the dreadful fate of Tantalus”

Passage preview

Book 11 · Passage 51

‘I saw also the dreadful fate of Tantalus, who stood in a lake that reached his chin; he was dying to quench his thirst, but could never reach the water, for whenever the poor creature stooped to drink, it dried up and vanished, so that there was nothing but dry ground—parched by the spite of heaven. There were tall trees, moreover, that shed their fruit over his head—pears, pomegranates, apples, sweet figs and juicy olives, but whenever the poor creature stretched out his hand to take some, the wind tossed the branches back again to the clouds.