Broteas insulted Artemis refusing to honor her. The goddess decided to punish him and drove him mad. Broteas was fool enough to think that he was invulnerable so he threw himself into the fire thinking that the flames would not burn him, so he died. Pelops , did not do anything to offend the Gods himself, but he played a very important role in the story of his father. We know already about Pelops from his story of the house of the Atreids.
Tantalus fate was to become one of the favorites and most intimates of Zeus. It seems that the rest of Gods were favorable towards Tantalus too, since he was frequently invited to the Olympus to dine with them. However, the hero Tantalus did not prove worthy of all these favors and honors, since he committed several crimes and injustices against the Gods.
Later on, he took ambrosia and nectar and took them to his friends trying to impress them. Tantalus also revealed some very important secrets that Zeus himself had confined in him, betraying the hospitality and trust of the Gods. He was present in some conversations between the Gods and overheard some divine secrets, which he told to the mortals.
Finally, Tantalus stole the favorite pet of Zeus, his golden dog. It is not absolutely certain that Tantalus himself did it, but he hid the dog for a known thief, Pandareus and then he refused to return it.
Although all the above mentioned crimes were pretty insulting to the Gods, showing that Tantalus was on the wrong track, the Gods did not punish him at first, thinking that he would understand from his mistakes. Tantalus invited all the Gods of the Olympus to a feast and dinner. But either because he wanted to test their genius or because he did not have enough food, he decided to do one of the most disgusting acts in Greek mythology.
He killed his son Pelops, cooked him roasting the pieces of his body and served him to the Gods. However, the Gods understood what was going on and refused to eat. The only one who decided to eat the food provided by Tantalus was Demeter, who ate the shoulder of Pelops. This act could not go unpunished and the Gods punished Tantalus: Zeus killed him crushing him on a mountain and destroyed everything he had created, including his kingdom. Tantalus was a son of Zeus who enjoyed cordial relations with the gods until he decided to slay his son Pelops and feed him to the gods as a test of their omniscience.
Most of the gods, as they sat down to dinner with Tantalus, immediately understood what had happened, and, because they knew the nature of the meat they were served, were appalled and did not partake. But Demeter , who was distracted due to the abduction by Hades of her daughter Persephone , obliviously ate Pelops' shoulder. The gods threw Tantalus into the underworld, where he spends eternity standing in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches.
Whenever he reaches for the fruit, the branches raise his intended meal from his grasp. Whenever he bends down to get a drink, the water recedes before he can drink. Thus is derived the word "tantalising".
0コメント