Wood-ibis is an American bird of the Tantalusgenus. It lives in swamps where it feeds on snakes, young alligators, frogs and other reptiles. Research Wood-Ibis
Heroes was a name applied by the Greeks to mythical personages who formed an intermediate link between men and gods. They were demigods, whose mortal nature only was destroyed by death, while the immortal ascended to the gods. The heroic age of Greece is considered to have terminated with the return of the Heraclidae into the Peloponnesus in 1100 BC. There were six great heroic races, descended respectively from Prometheus and Deucalion, Inachus, Agenor, Danaus, Pelops or Tantalus, and Cecrops. Individual families, as, for instance, the AEacidioe, Atridoe, Heraclidoe, belong to one or another of these races. Great sacrifices were not offered to the heroes, as they were to the Olympian deities; but groves were consecrated to them, and libations poured out on their sepulchres. Research Heroes
In Greek mythology, Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus and wife of Amphion, the king of Thebes. She was contemptuous of the goddess Leto for having produced only two children, Apollo and Artemis. She died of grief when her own 12 offspring were killed by them in revenge, and was changed to stone by Zeus. Research Niobe
In Greek mythology, Pelops was son of the Lydian king Tantalus, either by the goddess Dione or by a Pleiad. As a child he was killed and cooked by his father who served his flesh to the gods. The gods restored Pelops to life and his lover, the god Poseidon, presented him with a gift of a wonderful horse. Pelops became very skilled at chariot driving and when Oenomaus, king of Pisa, offered the hand of his daughter, Hippodamia, in marriage to anyone who could beat him in a chariot race - though to lose was to be executed - Pelops entered the race and bribed the king's charioteer Myrtilus to sabotage the king's chariot, resulting in the king crashing and being killed. Pelops married the princess and succeeded her father as king, and murdered Myrtilus by drowning him in the sea, though not before Myrtilus could let forth a curse on Pelops and his descendents with his dying breath. Research Pelops
In Greek mythology, Tantalus was a son of Zeus. He was king of Phrygia, Lydia. He was admitted to the table of the gods, but displeased them and was punished by being put in a lake such that he just couldn't reach the water with his lips, and being tempted by fruit above him which again was just out of reach. Research Tantalus
A Tantalus cup is a philosophical toy, consisting of a siphon so adapted to a cup that, the short leg being in the cup, the long leg may go down through the bottom of it. The siphon is concealed within the figure of a man, whose chin is on a level with the bend of the siphon. Hence, as soon as the water rises up to the chin of the image, it begins to subside, so that the figure, Like Tantalus in mythology, is unable to quench its thirst. Research Tantalus Cup
HMS Tantalus was a British T Class patrol type submarine of 1090 tons displacement launched in 1943. HMS Tantalus had a top speed of 15.25 knots surfaced and 9 knots submerged, carried a complement of 53 and was armed with one 4 inch dual-purpose gun; one 20 mm anti-aircraft gun; three machine-guns and about ten 21 inch torpedo tubes. Research Tantalus
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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