Also anglicized 4 Tantale, Tantaly, 7 Tantall. [L., a. Gr. Τάνταλος.]
1. Name of a mythical king of Phrygia, son of Zeus and the nymph Pluto, condemned, for revealing the secrets of the gods, to stand in Tartarus up to his chin in water, which constantly receded as he stooped to drink, and with branches of fruit hanging above him which ever fled his grasp; a rock is also said to have hung over him threatening to fall. Hence allusively.
c. 1369. Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 709. I haue more sorowe than Tantale.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 139. Ther is a peine … Benethe in helle, which men calle The wofull peine of Tantaly.
1555. T. Cottesford, trans. Zwingli’s Rekenynge and Confession of the Faith, xii. 56. Hell, wher with Ixion & Tantalus the vnfaythfull, disobedient and stubburne enemyes of God are euerlastingly punysshed.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 396. As the Apples that hang at Tantalus nose.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy. (1809), 642. He gathereth fruits as they say, out of Tantalus his garden.
1652. Wither, Dark-Lanterne, 32.
| Then they, who serv’d like Tantalus have bin | |
| (With fruits and waters, which their lips and chin | |
| Have often touch’d in vain) |
1738. Gray, Propertius, III. 89. The long thirst of Tantalus allay.
1767. B. Thornton, trans. Plautus, Miser, V. vi. The masters of our age … I call them Gripe-alls, Harpies, Tantalusses.
1835. Sir J. Ross, Narr. 2nd Voy., xlvii. 610. It was now long since it had been but the water of Tantalus.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xliii. (1856), 397. It seems like our cup of Tantalus: we are never to reach it.
1869. Ruskin, Queen of Air, § 23. The sins of Tantalus were of a much wider and more mysterious kind.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 2 July, 7/2. It serves as a veritable tantalus to the market.
2. A stand containing usually three cut-glass decanters which, though apparently free, cannot be withdrawn until the grooved bar which engages the stoppers is raised.
1898. To-Day, 5 Nov., 1/2. He crossed to a recess, and touched the spring of a tantalus. It few back with a harsh click.
1904. Strand Mag., March, 246/2. A tantalus containing brandy and whiskey.
1904. Daily News, 30 Aug., 8. The winner of the sack race received a two-bottle tantalus.
3. Ornith. A genus of storks, including T. ibis (formerly erroneously identified with Ibis religiosa of Egypt); the wood stork or wood ibis.
1824. Stephens, in Shaw, Gen. Zool., XII. 1. The Tantali in many respects resemble the Storks. Ibid., 1. The White-headed or Ceylonese Tantalus, is the largest of the genus.
1827. R. Jameson, trans. Cuvier’s The. Earth, 313. M. Macé also sent us a tantalus. Ibid. The Tantalus ibis of naturalists.
1896. List Animals Zool. Soc., 423. American Tantalus. Ibid., 424. African Tantalus… Indian Tantalus.
4. attrib. and Comb., as tantalus-draught; tantalus-like adj.; tantalus-case, -stand = sense 2; tantalus-cup: see quot. 1842; also fig.
1601. Yarington, Two Lament. Trag., V. ii., in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. Yet Tantall-like, he shall but glut his eye Nor feede his body with salubrious fruite.
1842. Brande, Dict. Sc., etc., Tantalus’s cup, a philosophical toy which amusingly exhibits the principle of the siphon…. The legs of the siphon are concealed by the hollow figure of a man whose chin is on a level with the bend of the siphon; so that the figure stands like Tantalus in the fable,—up to the chin in water, but unable to quench his thirst.
1799. Weems, Philanthropist, 11. Alone, he [man] is a feeble helpless wretch, living in a world stored with ten thousand blessings, but which, Tantalus like, he has not the power to taste.
a. 1850. Marg. F. Ossoli, Life Without & Within (1860), 30. Tantalus-like, he makes this world a Tartarus.
1884. Rider Haggard, Dawn, vii. No misadventure came to mock them, dashing the Tantalus cup of joy to earth before their eyes.
1884. R. Cane, Hist. Williamite and Jacobite Wars in Irel., 117. Though relief floated upon the waters, within view of their eager eyes, it was a Tantalus draught not yet for the lips.
1899. Doyle, Duet, viii. (1909), 46/2. The Tantalus spirit-stand stood upon the walnut sideboard.
1905. Daily Chron., 11 July, 7/1. Presents, including … a tantalus case, a diamond pin, and other trifles.
1908. Edin. Rev., July, 101. The Tantalus-draught escaped his thirsty lips.
