Tantalus Son Of Zeus
In Greek mythology , Tantalus (in ancient Greek / rapprochement with / "unfortunate" is a folk etymology ) is a mortal son of Zeus and the nymph pluto , and king of Phrygia or Lydia. He is married to Dione , daughter of Atlas , and father of Pelops , the Niobe , and Brotas.
The gods honored friendship and they received their divine table where he could become immortal by eating their food. According to Pindar, he stole the ambrosia to give this dish divine to mortals.
According to Pausanias , when the thief came Pandare give him the golden dog stolen from the sacred temple of Zeus in Crete, Tantalus denied owning it and then refused to return it to Hermes.
According to Ovid, the gods he serves his own son Pelops to the simple pleasure to test their omniscience. The idea that the gods were able to eat human flesh is rejected by the later Greeks. Under older versions, one or two deities, including Ceres, would still have consumed an arm. Zeus had commanded Hermes to return the child of hell to take the place of his father and to replace his shoulder by a piece of ivory. Other versions tell that it is Clotho, one of the Fates, who brought Pelops by boiling her body in her saliva. The gods, offended, condemned the king for what would become the tantalizing: spending eternity in Tartarus to suffer a triple execution.
In the Odyssey, Homer says he is in the middle of a river and under fruit trees, but the river dries up when he stoops to drink, and wind away the branches of the tree when he reaches out to catch the fruit.
Above his head is held in balance a huge rock that threatens to fall at any moment. Deadly fear gripped her throat constantly forming and the third execution.
Interpretation
The cannibalism is a way of sacrifice widely documented. The sacrifice of the first son of the head is too, but we can assume that even accepted and regarded as necessary, sacrifice remains a heart-breaking for the father as well as other community members.
Finally, the sacrifices are always dangerous, especially for the officiant. It is he who will bear the weight of misfortune if the outcome is not obtained.
Presumably the intended sacrifice gone wrong: the participants refused the sacrifice and regarded as the father made a mistake in offering his son. Tantalum and probably did not show enough compassion for this son (is aching to see other) nor intelligence to find a scapegoat.
Anyway, this story certainly marks for ancient Greece, if not the end of human sacrifice, at least their scarcity due to a horrible character recognition. Only an explicit request of the gods now justify this rite (see Agamemnon , who was also a descendant of Tantalus). The fact that Demeter had eaten there but compared to some worship which he was bound by the mysteries of Eleusis , then the sacrifices associated with the return of spring and harvest.
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