History Mystery: Realm of Myths and Legends -16

Tantalus: King in Greek mythology who offended the gods by divulging their secrets to mortals. They punished him with everlasting thirst and hunger. He stood up to his chin in a river in Hades, but each time he bent to quench his thirst the water receded. Similarly the boughs above him, heavy with fruit, were always just out of reach. The ordeal of Tantalus is the origin of the word tantalize meaning to tease or torment by exciting a hope and then disappointing it, or to keep out of reach something that is much desired.

Tarot Cards: Elaborately decorated cards of unknown origin that are used for fortune telling or divination. There were traditionally 78 cards in the pack- 56 divided into four suits and 22 trump cards with symbolic pictures. There is no standard design for Tarot symbols, and there are many ways of interpreting them.

Sisyphus: In Greek mythology, king of Corinth, he offended Zeus, who condemned him to push a huge boulder up a steep hill eternally.

Sphinx: Monster of Greek and Egyptian mythology. In Greek mythology, the Sphinx had the head and breasts of a woman, the body of a lion, and the wings of a bird. In the story of Oedipus it waylaid travelers on the roads near the city of Thebes, carrying away and devouring anyone who could not answer its riddle: ‘what creatures walk on four legs in the morning, on two legs in the noon, and on three legs in the evening?’ Oedipus finally gave the correct answer: human beings, who crawl on all fours as infants, walk upright in maturity, and use a walking stick in old age. The Egyptian sphinx was usually portrayed as a lion with a pharaoh’s head, like the huge stone statue at Giza in Egypt.