Tantalus

M.

Tell me, I beseech you, are you afraid of the three-headed Cerberus in the shades below, and the roaring waves of Cocytus, and the passage over Acheron, and Tantalus expiring with thirst while the water touches his chin, and Sisyphus, who sweats with arduous toil in vain, the steepy summit of the mount to gain? Perhaps too you dread the inexorable judges Minos and Rhadamanthus, before whom neither Lucius Crassus nor Marcus Antonius can defend you, and where, since the cause lies before Grecian judges, you will not even be able to employ Demosthenes, but you must plead for yourself before a very great assembly.

These things perhaps you dread, and therefore look on death as an eternal evil.

6.

Our business at present is to drive away grief, if we can, for that shall be the object of our present discussion, since you have said that it was your opinion that a wise man might be subject to grief, which I can by no means allow of, for it is a frightful, miserable, and detestable thing, which we should fly from with our utmost efforts, with all our sails and oars, as I may say.

Twelve.

That descendant of Tantalus, how does he appear to you? He who sprung from Pelops, who formerly stole Hippodamia from her father-in-law, King Enomius, and married her by force.

He who was descended from Jupiter himself.

You can't get the first letter of my name.

You've got elements for W, being Tungsten, but you don't have an element for T, unless you want Tantalum, named after Tantalus, which is T-A.

Although, actually, having said that there's no element for T, hydrogen actually encompasses H, T, and D, because you've got hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium.

So if you want to spell your name out, that's a cool way.

We were hurriedly dressing when I was seized with the notion of killing the guard and stripping the place.

this plan i confided to ascyltos who approved of the looting but pointed out a more desirable solution without bloodshed knowing all the crooks and terns as he did he led us to a storeroom which he opened we gathered up all that was of value and sallied forth while it was yet early in the morning shunning the public roads we could not rest until we believed ourselves safe from pursuit ascyltos when he had caught his breath gloatingly exulted of the pleasure which the looting of a villa belonging to lycurgus a superlatively avaricious man afforded him he complained with justice of his parsimony affirming that he himself had received no reward for his knightly services that he had been kept at a dry table and on a skimpy ration of food this lycurgus was so stingy that he denied himself even the necessities of life his immense wealth to the contrary notwithstanding The tortured Tantalus still stands, to part in his shifting pool, and starve when fruit sways just beyond his grasp, the image of the miser rich, when his avaricious soul robs him of food and drink in plenty's clasp.

ascyltos was for going to naples that same day but i protested the imprudence of going to any place where they would be on the look-out for us let's absent ourselves for a while and travel in the country we are well supplied with means this advice took his fancy and we set out for a part of the country noted for the beauty of its estates and where not a few of our acquaintances were enjoying the sports of the season scarcely had we covered half the distance however before it began to pour down rain by the bucketful compelling us to run for the nearest village Upon entering the inn, we noticed many other wayfarers who had put up there to escape the storm.

The jam prevented our being watched, and at the same time made it easier for us to pry about with curious eyes, on the alert for something to appropriate.

There's food there.

They eat the food, and you can remember this from stories, for example, like Tantalus, because you know Tantalus is stuck in a river.

He's very thirsty, but every time he wants to drink water, it recedes, and there's grapes over his head.

He's very hungry, and every time he reaches them, they get out of his way, right? So they need food, and they want food, but food for the living is better.

So if you're kind of having a meal on the grave, then they're going to be able to experience that in the afterlife, right? And this is one of the massive differences between these pagan and Roman relationships with the Christian conception of the dead, where it is a rules-based order that also is linked to what you've done in life and how good of a person you are.

Because even if you, and maybe this is more Greek than Roman, but even if you sort of live an okay, just sort of humdrum, average life, the underworld is a drag, right? It seems like you have to do something affirmatively heroic or really good to get yourself into the nice parts of the afterlife.

Otherwise, even if you're not being punished like Sisyphus or Tantalus, it just sort of sucks, it seems

like.