Feasting
The variant in which Tantalus attempts to feed the gods his dismembered son is, however, clearly familiar to audiences by the time of Pindar (c. 518–438 BCE). In his first Olympian Ode, Pindar initially alludes to the story in which Pelops is killed, served as food, and partially eaten, by explaining that Clotho, one of the three Fates, revived Pelops in a cauldron, replacing his shoulder with one of ivory. A scholiast commenting on this passage in Pindar reports that according to Bacchylides (c. 518–c. 451 BCE), it was Rhea who revived Pelops by placing him in a cauldron.
However, in Olympian 1 Pindar rejects this version, implying that it is a lie and adding that it is better to speak well of the gods. He then relates a different account in which Tantalus invited the gods to a meal to repay them for inviting him to feast with them. Nothing went amiss with the meal, but Poseidon, on seeing Pelops, was overcome with desire for him and carried him off in his chariot. The sudden disappearance of Pelops, and the failure of attempts to find him, led envious neighbours to spread rumours that he had been killed, cooked, and eaten. Pindar's choice of words in describing these rumoured events imply that the gods also participated in the act of killing Pelops. Although it is possible Pindar is reporting a variant he was aware of, Douglas Gerber suggests that the implication that the gods participated in the gruesome acts is meant to elevate the horror of the scene, and thus simultaneously make it seem less believable. In a similar vein, in the Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides, Iphigenia refers to the 'feast of Tantalus' that the gods attended and enjoyed as unworthy of belief. It is unclear, however, whether her denial is that the gods enjoyed the meal, or that they ate it at all, or that Tantalus attempted to feed the gods his son, and whether Euripides meant Iphigenia's denial to follow Pindar's variant in which Tantalus is the victim of the rumours of envious neighbours cannot be established by what is given in the play. In Euripides's Helen the character of Menelaus, mentions Pelops in relation to a feast, but the feast is referred to one which Pelops himself was 'persuaded' to make. The text, however, is generally considered corrupt, rather than referring to an otherwise unknown variant in which Pelops himself agreed to host a banquet.
After denying that Tantalus's crime was that of the cannibal banquet, Pindar then claims that his offence was stealing nectar and ambrosia from the gods – substances which they had used to make him immortal – and giving it to his friends. Zeus's punishment for Tantalus is to hang a boulder above his head, from which he then perpetually flees. It is unclear where Pindar imagines Tantalus's punishment as taking place. Some have argued that in the Nostoi Tantalus's punishment took place on Olympus and that Pindar was following this model. Gerber points out, however, that there are no other instances in which a mortal's punishment takes place on Olympus, and adds that it is difficult to imagine that the gods would enjoy the constant presence of the suffering Tantalus at their banquets. The punishment of the hanging rock is also mentioned by Electra in Euripides's Orestes, where Tantalus is located somewhere between heaven and earth, flying hither and thither in the air (ἀέρι ποτᾶται) in an attempt to escape the bolder above his head. The crime for which this is the punishment is, however, not detailed. A scholiast on the passage states that he was placed in the sky so that he was far enough from Olympus so as not to be able to hear the conversation of the gods, and far enough away from mortals so as not to be able to tell them anything he had already heard. Similarly, Diodorus Siculus (1st century BCE) recounts that his crime was sharing with mortals the intimate conversations of the gods, an explanation which Ovid also gives in the Ars Amatoria. Apollodorus gives both the theft of ambrosia and the sharing of the secrets of the gods as his crimes.
The first surviving source to name the Demeter as the god who ate part of Pelops is the Alexandra of Lycophron (c. 300 BCE), in which she is referred to via several epithets. The details given are that she ate the shoulder of the grandfather of Menelaeus (who is himself cryptically referred to by way of his genealogy), but nothing is said about how Pelops's shoulder came to be eaten, its replacement, or the punishment of Tantalus. In the Metamorphoses Ovid relates in book 6 that Pelops has a shoulder of ivory because he was cut up by his father, and that the gods restored him, except for a part of his shoulder which was absent (defuit), and in books 4 and 10 the punishment of Tantalus is mentioned in passing and includes receding waters and retreating trees. The story is also mentioned in the Fabulae. The details given are that Pelops was dismembered by Tantalus at a feast of the gods, that Ceres – the Roman counterpart to Demeter – ate a part of his arm, that the gods restored him to life, and that Ceres replaced the part of his shoulder that was missing with ivory. An explanation for why Demeter alone would fail to notice the content of the meal is given in later sources, with a scholium on Lycophron stating that Demeter was distracted by the loss of her daughter Persephone.
Likewise, an explanation as to why Tantalus attempted to feed his son to the gods is not found in any sources until Servius (early 5th century CE), who gives as Tantalus's motivation a desire to test the gods. A scholium on Lycophron suggests that this was a gesture of hospitality, but gives no explanation as to why it should be interpreted as such.
The story of Tantalus is also reported by the Vatican Mythographers. The first mythographer states that it was Ceres who ate Pelops's shoulder and then gave him the ivory replacement. The mythographer offers an allegorical interpretation of Ceres's involvement, explaining that she is the deity who ate him because goddess of earth, and earth consumes the bodies of the dead, but leaves the bones. The second and third mythographers also state that it was Ceres who ate part of Pelops, for the same allegorical reason, but do not mention the ivory replacement for the lost part. They instead state that it was Mercury who restored Pelops to life, and explain that this is because Mercury is the god of intelligence.
A Scholium on Lykophron suggests that either Tantalus 'was attempting to be hospitable, or to make a significant contribution to the eranos to which the gods had invited him (schol ad Lyc. 152, = ad Ol. 1.40a). The scholiast also notes that according to some it is either Themis or Thetis (the scholium survives in several manuscripts, and the name differs between them) who ate the shoulder.
