24. Niobe’s Father Was Also Punished by the Gods
You would think that Niobe would have learned from what had happened to her own father, and thus avoided getting on the gods’ bad side. In Greek legend, Tantalus was king of Sypilus in Lydia, in western Anatolia. In addition to being Niobe’s dad, he was the father of Pelops, after whom the Peloponnesus is named. Tantalus was also the great grandfather of Menelaus, the Spartan king and cuckolded husband of Helen of Troy, and his brother Agamemnon, who commanded the Greeks in the Trojan War.
Tantalus was a son of Zeus, the chief god of the Ancient Greeks, and a nymph – minor female nature deities, typically depicted as uninhibited nubile maidens who love to sing and dance. As Zeus’ son, Tantalus was on intimate terms with the gods and was often invited to dine with them at their table atop Mount Olympus. However, he abused that divine favor and committed a variety of offenses that angered the Olympians, and brought vengeance upon his head.
