Salmoneus

Thus he stays always tantalized by the sight of food and drink he never can secure.

Not far from Tantalus is Salmoneus, also a king, who dared to challenge the gods by impersonating Jupiter.

He made a huge bridge of brass and drove heavily over it while he threw lighted torches among the people who were waiting below, hoping thus to frighten them into believing that he was the very ruler of the heavens who hurls the mighty thunderbolts.

This insult to his divinity so angered Jupiter that he seized a real thunderbolt and soon dispatched the arrogant king.

When Salmoneus came before the throne of Pluto, his fate was quickly decided, and he was driven to terrible Tartarus, where he sits under a huge rock that threatens every moment to fall and crush him beneath its weight.

Another unhappy king is Sisyphus, who, when ruler of Corinth, became a famous robber and, in the pride of his great wealth, dared to set the gods at naught.

Therefore, he was consigned to Tartarus, and his punishment is to roll an immense stone to the top of a steep hill.