Tantalus

### Deathplace:

Tantal Castle, Mount Sipylus, Tantalís, Phrygia, Anatolia (present-day Manisa, Turkey)

## In-Game Information

### Home:

Sipylus, Tantalís, Phrygia, Anatolia (formerly)Dining Room

### Allies:

Ixion, Akhenaten, Minos, Sisyphus, Commodus, Mir Jafar, Thrax, Antaeus, Medea, Penthesilea, Magmus, Caracalla, Herobrus

### Enemies:

the player

*“For far too long, I have waded in the waters of pain. I can only extend my struggle to you, adventurer, for it is all I know. You are no being for such things. I shall show you, but not before making your blade quiver. Kneel before me!”* – Tantalus's introduction.

*“My breath falls shorter and shorter. The Bow of Artemis was not enough to overcome you. The quartz is yours.”* – Tantalus's last words.

**Tantalus** is the boss of the Temple of Artemis.

He is based on the character from Greek mythology.

## Biography

### Early Life

Tantalus, a son of Zeus and the nymph Plouto, was born in İzmir, Turkey, in 1380 B.C.

He later moved to Sipylus (present-day Manisa, Turkey), a fine marble city in Phrygia, in West Central Anatolia, where he would live for the rest of his life. He would live in a luxurious housing castle that was built on Mount Sipylus and was called Tantal Castle.

He became king in 1362 B.C. - when he was 18 - and ruled all of Phrygia by then. The city of Sipylus was renamed Tantalís in his honor.

Tantalus’s extreme wealth was derived from the mines of Phrygia and Mount Sipylus. Mount Sipylus has fertile soil and rich mineral deposits.

### Wrongdoings

Tantalus was also known for being greedy and having an unbridled tongue, which often got him into trouble.

Tantalus was captured for stealing food (ambrosia and nectar) from the gods for his people, stealing Zeus’s dog, and revealing secrets of the gods to his people, something which has been forbidden.

In addition, the gods prosecuted him for belittling their powers, because he believed in the Anatolian goddess Cybele rather than Zeus.

While all of these got him banned from entering Olympus again, he is most famous for one such atrocity.

### "Pelops Stew"

In 1322 B.C., during a celebration of the completion of Tantal Castle, Tantalus killed his son Pelops by stabbing him in the back with a butcher's knife, chopping his body into pieces and boiling them in a stew. This was meant to be an offering to the gods, and to test the omniscience of the gods.

However, the gods were well aware of this atrocity, so when presented to them when they arrived, they refused. However, Demeter, who was distraught over the abduction and rape of her daughter Persephone at the hands of Hades, ate some of it: Pelops’s left shoulder blade.

Clotho the Fate - the one who spins the Thread of Life and tells the past - resurrected Pelops after reassembled him back together. Hephaestus made a prosthetic left shoulder out of ivory in the place of his other one.

### Death

As punishment for this atrocity, Tantalus was killed by Zeus when he emaciated Tantalus to death, removing Tantalus’s flesh and organs.

* In other versions, Zeus killed Tantalus by crushing him under a crag of Mount Sipylus, throwing him down the mountain, burning him to death underneath the mountain, or blasting him to ashes with a thunderbolt.

Zeus then destroyed Tantalís by causing it to sink into an earthquake, and then flooded it until it was completely underneath what is now Lake Saloe.

After this, Tantalus was thrown through a crack in Mount Sipylus, until he fell into the depths of Tartarus. The crack then sealed up and became a lake known as Lake Tantalus, or Karagöl.

In Tartarus, Tantalus recieved his torturous punishment: he was forced to stand in a chin-high pool of water underneath an apple tree with low-hanging branches. The water would recede anytime he tried to take a drink, and the branches rose out of reach whenever he tried to get food, thus the gods reprieved him of his nourishment, and let him both starve and dehydrate for eternity. To add to this, a large rock - similar to the one Sisyphus recieved - loomed over his head, threatening to crush him to death.

Tantalus was 58 years old when he died.

His body was buried in Tomb of Tantalus in Tantalís.

## Return

Tantalus returned as a skeleton and usurped the Temple of Artemis.

## Physical appearance

As a skeleton, Tantalus wears enchanted gold (helmet and chestplate) and dyed tainted leather (pants and shoes) armor, including:

* Worn Crown of Tantalus with Protection II, Projectile Protection I, Unbreaking VII, and +4 Max Health.

* Fragile Chestplate of Tantalus with Protection II, Blast Protection I, Unbreaking VIII, and +4 Max Health.

* Tattered Leggings of Tantalus (dyed) with Protection V, Unbreaking X, +2 Max health, and 0.1 Knockback Resistance (color #B8B44F).

* and Frayed Boots of Tantalus (dyed), with Protection IV, Projectile Protection IV, Unbreaking IX, and +0.02 Speed (color #7A5F04).

Tantalus also carries Artemis’s Bow, unjustly stolen from Artemis. The bow is enchanted with Power IV, +6 Max Health, +0.1 Knockback Resistance, +6 Attack Damage, and +0.03 Speed.

## Trivia

* Tantalus is the great-grandfather of Agamemnon, a warrior in the Ancient Greek epic poem The Iliad (Tantalus married Dione, and she had 3 children, including Pelops (the middle child), who married Hippodameia, who had 3 children, including Atreus (the middle child), who married Airope, who had 3 children, the middle born of which is Agamemnon.
* Just outside the Temple of Artemis, there is a skeleton wading in a pool of water with the branch of a nearby apple tree hovering over him, keeping him alive. This skeleton is known as "The Punished One". This is an obvious reference to Tantalus's story.
* Tantalís is an anagram of Atlantis, which not only was destroyed the same way, but also is featured as a location in the game.