Note 877 — OMPHI,

It is said of Tantalus by some, that he was set up to his chin in water, with every kind of fruit within reach: yet hungry as he was and thirsty, he could never attain to what he wanted; every thing which he caught at eluding his efforts. But from the account given above by [877]Pindar, as well as by [878]Alcæus, Aleman, and other writers, his punishment consisted in having a stone hanging over his head; which kept him in perpetual fear. What is styled λιθος, was I make no doubt originally Petros; which has been misinterpreted a stone. Tantalus is termed by Euripides ακολαστος την γλωσσαν, a man of an ungovernable tongue: and his history at bottom relates to a person who revealed the mysteries in which he had been [879]initiated. The Scholiast upon Lycophron describes him in this light; and mentions him as a priest, who out of good nature divulged some secrets of his cloister; and was upon that account ejected from the society[880]. Ο Τανταλος ευσεβης και θεοσεπτωρ ην Ἱερευς, και φιλανθρωπιᾳ τα των θεων μυστηρια τοις αμυητοις ὑστερον ειπων, εξεβληθη του ἱερου καταλογου. The mysteries which he revealed, were those of Osiris, the Sun: the Petor, and Petora of Egypt. He never afterwards could behold the Sun in its meridian, but it put him in mind of his crime: and he was afraid that the vengeance of the God would overwhelm him. This Deity, the Petor, and Petora of the Amonians, being by the later Greeks expressed Petros, and Petra, gave rise to the fable above about the stone of Tantalus. To this solution the same Scholiast upon Pindar bears witness, by informing us, [881]that the Sun was of old called a stone: and that some writers understood the story of Tantalus in this light; intimating that it was the Sun, which hung over his head to his perpetual terror. [882]Ενιοι ακουουσι τον λιθον επι του ἡλιου—και επηωρεισθαι αυτου (Τανταλου) τον ἡλιον, ὑφ' ῳ δειματουσθαι, και καταπτησσειν. And again, Περι δε του ἡλιου ὁι φυσικοι λεγουσιν, ὡς λιθος (it should be πετρα) καλειται ὁ ἡλιος. Some understand, what is said in the history about the stone, as relating to the Sun: and they suppose that it was the Sun which hung over his head, to his terror and confusion. The naturalists, speaking of the Sun, often call him a stone, or petra.