Tantalus : son of Zeus & father of Pelops & Niobe. He was admitted to the table & council of the gods, & for his insolent behaviour was condemned to Tartarus (q.v.). One legend says that he divulged divine secrets, another that he served his son’s body to the gods. He was punished in Hades by being set thirsty & hungry, in a pool of water which always receded when he tried to drink from it & under fruit trees whose branches the wind tossed aside when he tried to pick the fruit.
... other seas in turn Mow with their scythes of whiteness other bays. 25 All the myths about Hades, according to Lucretius, are but allegories of the torments of needless anxieties in life. Tantalus is the man who lives in fear of the gods; Tityos is the frustrated lover; Sisyphus is the ambitious politician wooing the people for support. Fools create a hell for themselves on earth. One should ...
... Kazantzakis even more than the number 'seven. On his return to Ithaca and after the destruction of the suibid.rs, the minstrel sings how at the birth of Odysseus he had been blessed (or cursed) by Tantalus with a ravenous heart, by Prometheus with "the seed of a great light", his razor-edged mind, and by Heracles with "the unsated blaze", his restless spirit. 70 Next night he tells his father, wife ...
... them, Whom had the island cities offended, stormed by the Locrian, Wave-kissed homes of peace but given to the sack and the spoiler? Was then King Atreus just and the house accursèd of Pelops, Tantalus' race, whose deeds men shuddering hear and are silent? Look! they endure, their pillars are firm, they are regnant and triumph. Or are Thyestean banquets sweet to the gods in their savour? Only ...
... successful end in any of his enterprises. Somehow everything gets bogged down before the final goal is reached. His boat sinks before the shore is reached. He has to remain permanently thirsty like King Tantalus of Greek mythology: his parched lips cannot touch the level of the drink in his cup. The question is: Why so? Who or what frustrates all his efforts at final fulfilment? Enough is enough: let ...
... is gone wry". Is it condemned permanently to remain imperfect, restless, always inviting difficulties, dangers, and suffering ? It never seems to atain what it strives for—it is like the labour of Tantalus from whose lips the cup is always receding. Man seeks happiness in life but hardly finds it. If life is an evil and delusion, why is it so ? We have arrived at the conception of the Omnipresent ...
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