Transcript Tantalizing Greek Mythology in Popular Culture

A Tantalizing Sisyphean Task:
Greek Mythology in Popular
Culture
Bibliography: “Greek Sinners in the Modern World”
http://department.monm.edu/classics/Courses/Clas230/MythDocuments/
greek_sinners_in_the_modern_world.htm
Mythological Influence on...
Greek Mythology in Popular Culture
SISYPHUS
TANTALUS
IXION
House f Tantalus
Tantalus: Hyginus: #82-88; Apollodorus E.2.1
John Barton’s epic play cycle
Denver, 2000
Tantalus
How is the story
in the painting at
right different
from the story in
the relief above?
Detail from a Italian vase
Fourth-century B.C.
“Tantalus Cup”
How could the philosophy Pythagoras
use this cup to teach moderation?
Why was it called a “Tantalus Cup”?
Sisyphus and
Tantalus in the
Literary World
Sisyphus in Art
Titian. 1549 El Prado Madrid
Franz von Stuck
1863-1928
Tantalus
Bernard Picart (1673-1733)
Strip for Me. Sept. 2000.
Scottish cartoonist
Douglas Noble
Honore Daumier
French Realist
Illustrator, 18081879
Eric Shanower
Age of Bronze Special
1999
What does Noble wrap
around Tantalus’ neck?
Tantalus
Bernard Picart (1673-1733)
Tantalus Interactive
http://www.tantalus.com.au/
Zoology
Chlorocebus tantalus
Tantalus aethiopicus
Sisyphus spinipes
↕
Tantalus Mountain Range
The Tantalus Range is a small but spectacular sub-range of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains
in southern British Columbia, Canada.
Tantalum
• Symbol:
Ta
• Atomic
Number:
73
Commercial Products
Why is this object called a tantalus?
A three bottle rack style
tantalus.
Boats
HMS Tantalus
USS Tantalus
Pop Music
Sills, Stephen. "Myth of
Sisyphus." In Stills (1975)
Are you troubled
Feelin' bad
And no one seems to care
Got the myth of Sisyphus
Fallin' on you like a rolling stone
Arena. “Tantalus.”
In Pepper’s Ghost (2005)
Standing in water, but dying of thirst
This is my thanks and this is my curse
Try as I might, the fruit on the trees
All remain beyond reach, beyond wishes or pleading for
One last chance
Waiting for time to pass me by
Waiting for freedom, waiting to die
Where can I go, in a world without hope?
There is never a place for a soul that has broken so
Trust in no one - Trust in no one
Yet Do I Marvel
by Countee Cullen
I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,
And did He stoop to quibble could tell why
The little buried mole continues blind,
Why flesh that mirrors Him must someday die,
Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus
Is baited by the fickle fruit, declare
If merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus
To struggle up a never-ending stair.
Inscrutable His ways are, and immune
To catechism by a mind too strewn
With petty cares to slightly understand
What awful brain compels His awful hand.
Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:
To make a poet black, and bid him sing.
A Tantalizing Sisyphean Task
Tom Sienkewicz
Monmouth College
[email protected]
Bibliography: “Greek Sinners in the Modern World”
http://department.monm.edu/classics/Courses/Clas230/
MythDocuments/greek_sinners_in_the_modern_world.h
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