The Myth of Tantalus and Symbolic Defilement

In the image above, the punishment of the mythological king Tantalus is depicted. According to legend, Tantalus was condemned to die of starvation because he deceived the gods (i.e., he stole food from and offered his dead son to them). If one considers this image in relation to “Purity and Danger”, then one might reason that Tantalus’ punishment is representative of his physical and symbolic defilement of the gods’ order. 

In the image, Tantalus is completely alone. This is significant because it demonstrates that Tantalus - the figure who repeatedly polluted the eating habits of the gods - posed a threat to the society that he belonged to. Perhaps like a prison inmate in solitary confinement, the depiction of Tantalus as being alone indicates that he has sinned and defied the symbolic order, such as Adam and Eve did when they ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. In both stories, both sets of figures are “invested with power and danger” because they threatened the “integrity, unity and purity” of the divine orders that were present in their respective stories (Douglas 2007). If Tantalus' punishment is comparable to Adam and Eve's banishment, then the image of Tantalus starving might be emblematic of what philosopher Julia Kristeva calls the maintenance of “distance between man and God by means of…dietary differentiation…” (1984:94). Although Tantalus’ and Adam and Eve’s transgressions might not represent rituals of defilement or purification (e.g., “...the cadaver of the last incumbent yield[ing] up material for anointing [their] successor”), they nonetheless represent “symbolic system[s], based on the image of the body, whose primary concern is the ordering of a social hierarchy” (Douglas 2007). In the case of Tantalus above, the image of his bodily suffering provides a “visual expression” of what happened when he “applied pressure to” the “external boundaries of [his] social system” (Douglas 2007).

References

“Tantalus.” Wikipedia. Retrieved March 23, 2023 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantalus#cite_note-25). 

Douglas, Mary. 2007. Purity and Danger an Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge. 

Kristeva, Julia. 1984. Powers of Horror: An Essay of Abjection. New York: Columbia University Press. 

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