Who is Tantalus?
Tantalus was the son of Zeus. He was the king of Sipylus in Lydia and was the intimate friend of the gods, to whose table he was admitted. His indiscretion caused the Gods to ban him to the Underworld.
It's because of Tantalus that "to tantalize" entails holding something desirable just out of reach. In the Underworld's region of eternal punishment, Tantalus stood in a pool of water under boughs laden with fruit just out of reach so he could satisfy neither hunger nor thirst.
Tantalus
BLANCHARD, JANE. “Tantalus.” The Classical Outlook, vol. 92, no. 1, 2017, pp. 18–18. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26342218. Accessed 8 Dec. 2022.
Tantalus in Euripides Orestes
O’Brien, M. J. “TANTALUS IN EURIPIDES’ ORESTES.” Rheinisches Museum Für Philologie, vol. 131, no. 1, 1988, pp. 30–45. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41233658. Accessed 8 Dec. 20
Power and Powerlessness in Seneca's "Thyestes"
Rose, Amy R. “Power and Powerlessness in Seneca’s ‘Thyestes.’” The Classical Journal, vol. 82, no. 2, 1986, pp. 117–28. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3297865. Accessed 8 Dec. 2022.
Tantalus
Spencer, Andrew, and Timothy L. Gall. “Tantalus.” Mythology Online, Lincoln Library Press, 2012. FactCite, https://www.factcite.com/myth/8000449.html. Accessed 8 Dec. 2022.
Tantalus' by Giovanni Battista Langetti, painting in the Museo del Settecento Veneziano in Venice. The picture shows Tantalus, condemned by the Gods to suffer hunger and thirst for eternity, who desperately observes the juicy fruits placed near his mouth.
Tantalus' . Fine Art. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/153_2946786/1/153_2946786/cite. Accessed 12 Dec 2022.
Digital illustration of Tantalus punished by standing in pool of water beneath tree with low branches of fruit he can never reach.
Photograph. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/118_815679/1/118_815679/cite. Accessed 12 Dec 2022.