Etymologically
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Tantalus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈtan.ta.ɫʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈtan.ta.lus][1]

Forms

Tantalus m sg (genitive Tantalī); second declension[1] The Greek form Tantalos is also used.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek Τάνταλος (Tántalos).[1][5][2] The origin of the Greek name is unclear: Beekes rejects a connection with the root of τάλας (tálas, “enduring, wretched”), and finds an Indo-European explanation most improbable;[6] Köbler nonetheless links it with Proto-Indo-European *tel- (“to lift, bear”).[7] Plato interpreted the name as “who has to bear much”.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero is the first author with the name,[7] citing a poet on the punishment of Tantalus in the Tusculan Disputations.[2]

Semantic evolution

The name is that of a mythical king, son of Jupiter and father of Pelops and Niobe; the OLD calls him Lydian, Lewis & Short and Georges a king of Phrygia.[5][2][3] He was punished in the underworld by having to stand in water that drew back when he tried to drink, under fruit that drew back when he reached for it, and in another version under a rock always about to fall.[5][2] Georges gives two reasons for the punishment: that he betrayed what was said at the banquet of the gods, or that he served his own son to them as food.[3]

Horace, Tibullus, Propertius and Ovid, used the story often,[2] and Propertius made the adjective Tantalēus from it.[2] English named a verb after him in the 1590s, tantalize, to torment by holding something desirable out of reach.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero tells of the punishment of Tantalus.[2][7]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses his story in the Satires and Epodes.[2][7]
  • 57/46–12 BC – Propertius uses the adjective Tantaleus.[2][7]
  • 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid tells of him in the Metamorphoses.[2][7]
  • 1590s – English forms tantalize from the name.[8]

Meanings

Proper noun

  1. (Greek mythology) Tantalus, a king of Lydia or Phrygia, father of Pelops and Niobe, punished in the underworld with thirst and hunger that he could never satisfy.[5][2][4]

Word family

  • Tantalēus

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com