Expert: Irulan Serena - 7/22/2004

Question
What is the name of the city that has been excavated in Turkey that archaeologists think belonged to King Tantalus and where can I find information on it?

Thank you

Answer
Hello Tzietel,



TANTALUS, in Greek legend, was son of Zeus. In Greek mythology Tantalus was the traditional king of SIPYLUS  in Lydia (or of Phrygia), of Smyrna in Asia Minor.   


Others say that Tantalus  was king of  PAPHLAGONIA, an ancient district of Asia Minor, situated on the Euxine Sea between Bithynia and Pontus, separated from Galatia by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus. PAPHLAGONIA, an ancient district of Asia Minor, situated on the Euxine Sea between Bithynia and Pontus, separated from Galatia by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus. in northern Asia Minor.

A far as I know neither one of these two ancient cities have been excavated….however other there are five major discoveries in Anatolia, however, there is little information of those excavations on the web due to the Turkish governmental restriction on  ancient sites due to theft and destruction of evidence during the Henrich Schleiman discoveries of ancient Troy on the west coast of Turkey.

Irulan