From Tantalus to Tantalize

【Humanities Series📚】

In today’s Humanities series, we will be diving into a new section, Greek Mythology!! In this section, we are going to take a look at fascinating Greek mythologies and see how they influence words or phrases in modern English. If you are ready, let’s begin with our first story—Tantalus.

📖Tantalus was the son of Zeus and the king of Lydia. He was favored by the Olympians and was even invited to their banquet. However, Tantalus was not aware of his luck; instead, the mistakes he made aroused the anger of the gods,which led him to eternal punishment. Tantalus’ wrongdoing started from stealing ambrosia and nectar, which were the food and drink of the gods, from their banquet, in order to make himself an immortal being. The fatal mistake which Tantalus made happened at the banquet he hosted which the gods were all invited to. At this banquet, Tantalus played a trick on the Olympians by sacrificing his son, Pelops, as the meal in the feast. His terrible crime outraged the gods so he was made to stand in a pool above which there were fruit trees. Whenever he leaned forward to drink water, the water level would go down; and when he tried to eat the fruit above, the branches would go higher. 

📒Tantalus was stuck in the unpleasant suffering for eternity. An English word, tantalize, is derived from his name and situation. Tantalize means to make someone feel attracted by an offer or a suggestion of something that is, in fact, unlikely to happen. This word aptly describes the situation of Tantalus and is still used nowadays.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantalus_(mythology)

https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Tantalus/tantalus.html

https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/tantalus.html

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/zht/%E8%A9%9E%E5%85%B8/%E8%8B%B1%E8%AA%9E-%E6%BC%A2%E8%AA%9E-%E7%B9%81%E9%AB%94/tantalize

picture source:

https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E5%9D%A6%E5%A1%94%E6%B4%9B%E6%96%AF