26. The Original Mythology of Zeus Has Him as a Super Vindictive Deity
In ancient Greek mythology, Tantalus was a king of Sypilus in Lydia, in western Anatolia. He was the father of Pelops, after whom the Peloponnesus is named. Tantalus was also the great grandfather of Menelaus, the Spartan king and cuckolded husband of Helen of Troy, and his brother Agamemnon, who commanded the Greeks in the Trojan War. Tantalus was a son of Zeus and a nymph – minor female nature deities, typically depicted as uninhibited nubile maidens who love to sing and dance. As a son of Zeus, Tantalus was on intimate terms with the gods and was often invited to dine with them at their table in the heavens.
However, Tantalus was not a nice guest. He abused that divine hospitality, committed a variety of offenses that angered the Olympians, and brought divine punishment upon himself. One of Tantalus’ sins was his theft of ambrosia and nectar, the food of the gods, which he gave to mortals. He also liked to blab, and revealed to mortals secrets that he had learned at the table of the gods in heaven. However, what offended the divine pantheon the most was when Tantalus ended his own son, Pelops, and served him to the gods at a banquet because he wanted to test their powers of observation.