Tantalus

In Greek mythology, Tantalus was the son of Zeus and the Titaness Pluto. Having offended the gods he was punished to an eternity in Tartarus, where he was deprived of food and water so that he remained perpetually famished and parched. Compelled to stand up to his chin in water, whenever he attempted to eat or drink, nourishment was removed from his reach. Goltzius's violently agitated, tumbling figures (there are four in the series) were well known to Henry Fuseli, although the latter's depiction of musculature never acquired the extreme late Mannerist tendencies demonstrated here. (Monsters and Maidens, 2004)

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