that he was set up to his chin in water,
with every kind of fruit within reach: yet hungry as he was and thirsty, he
could never attain to what he wanted; every thing which he caught at
eluding his efforts. But from the account given above by [877]Pindar, as
well as by [878]Alcaeus, Aleman, and other writers, his punishment consisted
in having a stone hanging over his head; which kept him in perpetual fear.
What is styled [Greek: lithos], was I make no doubt originally Petros;
which has been misinterpreted a stone. Tantalus is termed by Euripides
[Greek: akolastos ten glossan], a man of an ungovernable tongue: and his
history at bottom relates to a person who revealed the mysteries in which
he had been [879]initiated. The Scholiast upon Lycophron describes him in
this light; and mentions him as a priest, who out of good nature divulged
some secrets of his cloister; and was upon that account ejected from the
society[880]. [Greek: O Tantalos eusebes kai theoseptor en Hiereus, kai
philanthropiai ta ton theon musteria tois amuetois husteron eipon,
exeblethe tou hierou katalogou]. The mysteries which he revealed, were
those of Osiris, the Sun: the Petor, and Petora of Egypt. He never
afterwards could behold the Sun in its meridian, but it put him in mind of
his crime: and he was afraid that the vengeance of the God would overwhelm
him. This Deity, the Petor, and Petora of the Amonians, being by the later
Greeks expressed Petros, and Petra, gave rise to the fable above about the
stone of Tantalus. To this solution the same Scholiast upon Pindar bears
witness, by informing us, [881]that the Sun was of old called a stone: and
that some writers understood the story of Tantalus in this light;
intimating that it was the Sun, which hung over his head to his perpetual
terror. [882][Greek: Enioi akouousi ton lithon epi tou heliou--kai
epeoreisthai autou (Tantalou) ton helion, huph' oi deimatousthai, kai
kataptessein]. And again, [Greek: Peri de tou heliou hoi phusikoi legousin,
hos lithos] (it should be [Greek: petra]) [Greek: kaleitai ho helios].
_Some understand, what is said in the history about the stone, as relating
to the Sun: and they suppose that it was the Sun which hung over his head,
to his terror and confusion. The naturalists, speaking of the Sun, often
call him a stone, or petra_.

[Illustration: Pl. V. _Temple of Mithras Petraeus in the Mountains of
Persia. From Le Bruyn_]

By laying all these circumstances together, a