Talk:Tantalus

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Contents 1 Comments 2 Pluto 3 Plethora of Tantaloi 4 Vandalism 5 Picture? 6 neo-pagan slant 7 new section "interpretation" 8 Thus he was a king in the primordial world

[edit] Comments

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

[edit] 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."

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)