ment
in the latter case. The second legend ought to be completed here by a
fact derived from the story of Prometheus: the liver grows as fast as
the vultures rend or consume it; thus again rises the idea of infinite
repetition, now of suffering, not of action, for Orion is active.

The next two forms, Tantalus and Sisyphus, have also a kinship. Both
had known secrets of the Gods and had betrayed them; Tantalus is also
reported to have taken away nectar and ambrosia from the Olympian table
after being a guest there; Sisyphus revealed to the river-god Asopus
the secret that Zeus had spirited away the latter's daughter, AEgina.
The penalty is that Tantalus remains perpetually hungry and thirsty,
with sight of food and drink always before his eyes; he cannot reach
them when he strives. The finite, with an infinite longing, cannot
compass the infinite; the man loses it just when he grasps for it--a
truly Greek penalty for a sin against the Greek world, which rests upon
the happy harmonious unity of the spirit with the body and with nature.
The Christian or Romantic longing and grasping for the Beyond is to the
Greek soul a punishment of Hades. Tantalus with his hunger and thirst
seems to represent more the striving of the intellect to attain the
unattainable; while Sisyphus suggests the effort of the will--practical
endeavor, the eternal routine of mechanical employment, which always
has to begin over again. Etymology brings also a suggestion. Both names
are reduplicated; in Tantalus is the root of the word which means to
suffer; in Sisyphus, lurks the signification of craft; it hints the
wise or crafty planner (_sophos_) who always pushes the act to a point
where it undoes itself or must be done over again. Note the effect of
this reduplication of the first syllables, which means repetition; over
and over again, in an infinite series must the matter be gone through,
in suffering and in doing; the very words are in labor.

Indeed this indicates the common element in these four punishments: the
endless repetition of the struggle of finitude. The first two, Orion
and Tityos, reached out for Goddesses, being mortals; the second two,
still mortals, but in communion with deities, attempted to bring down
divine secrets to earth; the one set strove to make the finite
infinite, the other to make the infinite finite. Both were contrary to
the nature of the Greek mind, which sought to keep the happy balance
between the two sides, bet