Tantalus
in Greek mythology, a King of Lydia, son of Zeus. He was father of Niobe and Pelops, by Dione, one of the Atlantides, and is represented by the poets as punished in Hades with an insatiable thirst, and placed up to the chin in the midst of a pool of water, which flowed away as soon as he attempted to taste it. There hung also above his head a bough, richly loaded with delicious fruit, which, as soon as he attempted to seize it, was carried away from his reach by a sudden blast of wind. He was thus punished either for theft, cruelty, and impiety, or lasciviousness; for the causes are variously stated.
TANTIA TOPI ("the weaver who became an artilleryman") ; the most energetic of the rebel ringleaders during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. He commenced as a lieutenant of Nana Sahib, of whom he is said to have been a relation; but after the latter had fled into Nepal, he continued the war for several months , retreating with great rapidity through Bundelcund and central India, but was finally captured, tried, and hanged in April, 1859. He was the last armed rebel in the field.