In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

 Tantalus, not to be confused with his more famous grandfather and namesake (Tantalus

Tantalus

Tantalus was the ruler of an ancient western Anatolian city called either after his name, as "Tantalís", "the city of Tantalus", or as "Sipylus", in reference to Mount Sipylus, at the foot of which his city was located and whose ruins were reported to be still visible in the beginning of the...

), who was also called Atys

Atys

Atys may mean:*Atys was a king of Alba Longa.*Atys was an early king of Lydia, then referred to as Maeonia, and was the father of Lydus.*Atys son of Croesus was the son of the later King Croesus of Lydia....

, was the son of Broteas

Broteas

In Greek mythology, Broteas, a hunter, was the ugly son of Tantalus , whose other offspring were Niobe and Pelops. He was said to have carved the most ancient image of the Great Mother of the Gods , an image that in Pausanias' day was still held sacred by the Magnesians...

 . He ruled over the city of Lydia

Lydia

Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian....

. He was the first husband of Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra or Clytaemnestra , in ancient Greek legend, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Mycenae or Argos. In the Oresteia by Aeschylus, she was a femme fatale who murdered her husband, Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan princess...

 and was slain by Agamemnon

Agamemnon

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Electra and Orestes. Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area...

, King of Mycenae

Mycenae

Mycenae is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90 km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 11 km to the south; Corinth, 48 km to the north...

, a soldier in the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

, who made Clytemnestra his wife. After he died, the Tantalid dynasty finished because Agron took the throne. He was a great-great-grandson of Heracles

Heracles

Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...

 and Omphale, Atys's stepmother, and therefore, Tantalus II's second cousin once removed by marriage.

Agamemnon

Tantalus's second cousin was Agamemnon, the king of Argos

Argos

Argos is a city and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour...

 and Mycenae, who killed Tantalus and married Clytemnestra. He fought in the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

 and was killed by Aegisthus

Aegisthus

In Greek mythology, Aegisthus was the son of Thyestes and of Thyestes' daughter, Pelopia....

, Clytemnestra's new husband, on his return. Agamemnon's son Orestes

Orestes

Orestes was the son of Agamemnon in Greek mythology; Orestes may also refer to:Drama*Orestes , by Euripides*Orestes, the character in Sophocles' tragedy Electra*Orestes, the character in Aeschylus' trilogy of tragedies, Oresteia...

 avenged him and killed Aegisthus.

Tantalus's family members

Tantalus is a member of a family that awful things have a history of happening to.

Tantalus

Tantalus's grandfather, also named Tantalus

Tantalus

Tantalus was the ruler of an ancient western Anatolian city called either after his name, as "Tantalís", "the city of Tantalus", or as "Sipylus", in reference to Mount Sipylus, at the foot of which his city was located and whose ruins were reported to be still visible in the beginning of the...

, sacrificed his son, Pelops

Pelops

In Greek mythology, Pelops , was king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus. He was the founder of the House of Atreus through his son of that name....

, to the gods. Since the Olympians

Twelve Olympians

The Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon , in Greek mythology, were the principal deities of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus. Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, and Hades were siblings. Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Athena, Apollo, and Artemis were children of Zeus...

 hated human sacrifice, they restored Pelops back to life and gave him a team of Poseidon

Poseidon

Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...

's horses. They also killed Tantalus and he was tortured in the Underworld

Underworld

The Underworld is a region which is thought to be under the surface of the earth in some religions and in mythologies. It could be a place where the souls of the recently departed go, and in some traditions it is identified with Hell or the realm of death...

. Pelops would win a chariot race and win the right to marry a princess, named Hippodamia

Hippodamia

Hippodamia was a daughter of King Oenomaus and wife of Pelops with whom her offspring were Thyestes, Atreus, Pittheus, Alcathous, Troezen, Hippalcimus, Copreus, Astydameia, Nicippe, Eurydice and others....

, with his team of horses.

Broteas

His father was Broteas

Broteas

In Greek mythology, Broteas, a hunter, was the ugly son of Tantalus , whose other offspring were Niobe and Pelops. He was said to have carved the most ancient image of the Great Mother of the Gods , an image that in Pausanias' day was still held sacred by the Magnesians...

, the ugly brother of Niobe

Niobe

Niobe was a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione, the most frequently cited, or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa, and she was the sister of Pelops and Broteas, all of whom figure in Greek mythology....

 and Pelops

Pelops

In Greek mythology, Pelops , was king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus. He was the founder of the House of Atreus through his son of that name....

. Broteas carved the image of Cybele

Cybele

Cybele , was a Phrygian form of the Earth Mother or Great Mother. As with Greek Gaia , her Minoan equivalent Rhea and some aspects of Demeter, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth...

, a Phyrgian equivalent of the Titaness Rhea

Rhea (mythology)

Rhea was the Titaness daughter of Uranus, the sky, and Gaia, the earth, in Greek mythology. She was known as "the mother of gods". In earlier traditions, she was strongly associated with Gaia and Cybele, the Great Goddess, and was later seen by the classical Greeks as the mother of the Olympian...

. The image was sacred to the Magnesians. Broteas, like his son, also ruled over Pisa. Since he was a hunter and did not honor Artemis

Artemis

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...

, he was sacrifice

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...

d on a pyre

Pyre

A pyre , also known as a funeral pyre, is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite...

. It was similar to the punishment of Actaeon

Actaeon

Actaeon , in Greek mythology, son of the priestly herdsman Aristaeus and Autonoe in Boeotia, was a famous Theban hero. Like Achilles in a later generation, he was trained by the centaur Chiron....

.

Niobe

Niobe

Niobe

Niobe was a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione, the most frequently cited, or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa, and she was the sister of Pelops and Broteas, all of whom figure in Greek mythology....

 was Broteas's sister. She had fourteen children and bragged about them at a ceremony dedicated to Leto, the mother of the gods Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

 and Artemis

Artemis

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...

, boasting that Leto only had two children. To punish her, Apollo and Artemis killed all of Niobe's children.

Manes

Manes, aka Tmolus, the father of Atys, was the first king of Lydia, which was then called Maeonia, after him. He married Omphale

Omphale

In Greek mythology, Omphale was a daughter of Iardanus, either a king of Lydia, or a river-god. Omphale was queen of the kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor; according to Bibliotheke she was the wife of Tmolus, the oak-clad mountain king of Lydia; after he was gored to death by a bull, she continued...

 but gave birth to Atys with Plouto

Plouto

In Greek mythology, Plouto or Pluto was a nymph and the mother of Tantalus by Zeus. Her parents were Oceanus and Tethys or Himas, a Lydian that was otherwise unknown...

, a nymph

Nymph

A nymph in Greek mythology is a female minor nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform. Different from gods, nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young nubile maidens who love to dance and sing;...

 and Oceanid

Oceanid

In Greek mythology and, later, Roman mythology, the Oceanids were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. Each was the patroness of a particular spring, river, sea, lake, pond, pasture, flower or cloud...

. Manes was gored to death by a bull and Omphale became the queen. The list of Tantalid rulers of Lydia is: Manes, Omphale, Atys, Broteas, and Tantalus II.

Heraclids, or Tylonids

After Tantalus II was killed by Agamemnon, his second cousin twice removed by marriage, Agron

Agron of Lydia

Agron was the fourth king of Maeonia, which was also known as Lydia from this time onwards . He was the first king of the Heraclid dynasty; see List of Kings of Lydia....

, took the kingdom of Lydia. Agron was the son of Ninus, Ninus was the son of Belus, Belus was the son of Alcaeus, and Alcaeus was the son of Heracles and Omphale. This was the beginning of a new dynasty, called the Heraclids. Agron's son and successor was Ardys I.