Tantalus is asteroid #2102, also known as 1975 YA, of the type Q and of the group Apollo. Tantalus was discovered by the American astronomer Charles Thomas Kowal, who lived from 1940 until 2011 and discovered nineteen asteroids. Fourteen of them are named already. The orbit of Tantalus has an eccentricity of 0.2988 and an inclination of 64.009°. Thus Tantalus usually isn’t close to the ecliptic. Tantalus’ inclination is much higher than that of Eris and she is almost behaving like on a circumpolar orbit because of her high inclination. Tantalus is the Latinized form of Tantalos, after whom he is named.

Tántalos (Τάνταλος) is in Greek mythology an incredible rich king with a huge territory, although not exactly known where. Who are his parents or who is his wife are disputed questions. Tantalos is probably a grandson of Rhea and Kronos. Only that Tantalos is the father of four children is undisputed. They are Nióbē (Νιόβη), Broteas (Βροτέας), Daskylos (Δάσκυλος), and Pelops (Πέλοψ). Tantalos ate together with gods at their table. But Tantalos committed several crimes against the gods. The most important crimes were stealing nektar (νέκταρ) and ambrosia (ἀμβροσία), which are perhaps both the same, from the gods and becoming immortal this way. Then when Tantalos invited the gods to his table, he had decided to test them, killed his own son Pelops, cut him into pieces, cooked him, and served him to the gods. Although the gods of ancient Greece did often terrible things to humans, the gods of ancient Greece did see cannibalism among humans still as a very severe crime. That cannibalism was believed to produce magical powers is probably only a part of the reasons for this. Most important could be that the highest gods of the ancient Greeks had experienced to be eaten by their father, when Kronos ate Hades and Poseidon and their sisters. The gods at Tantalos’ table, with exception of the grieving Demeter, immediately recognized that they were served human meat and that it was the meat of Pelops. The gods put the parts together and revived Pelops. Then the gods punished Tantalos. He was banned into the Tartaros and got a special and famous punishment there. He stood in the middle of potable water, but as soon as he wanted to drink from it, the water retreated every time. Branches with ripe fruits were hanging right above him, but as soon as he stretched to pick them, the branches retreated every time. Perhaps still so until today and further because Tantalos should be immortal from the ambrosia. The gods additionally cursed Tantalos’ family. All of the descendants of Tantalos should kill another member of the family and be guilty of it, which could mean punished for it, until the family wouldn’t exist anymore. This is known as the Tantalids’ curse and it lasted five generations until Orestes as the last of the Tantalids had revenged his father and died from a snakebite.

When Orestes, the last of the Tantalids, is relevant, then Tantalus as the first of the Tantalids should be relevant too. Tantalus was the cause of Orestes’ troubles. But the astrological force Tantalus reaches, just like the astrological force Helio, into chemistry. The Swedish chemist Anders Gustaf Ekeberg lived from 1767 until 1813 and discovered the chemical element tantalum in 1802. He named this element Tantal (tantalum is only the usual Anglo-Saxon twist) after Tantalos because tantalum isn’t reacting with any acid just like Tantalos isn’t able to take up food or water. The chemical element was for a while used in light bulbs, but its main use is in microelectronics, where capacitors and resistors are made of tantalum, as well as for medical implants because it doesn’t react with any body fluids.

The chemistry part tells us that isolation and getting not involved are the core meanings of the astrological force Tantalus. This is also consistent with the orbit of asteroid #2102. Tantalus barely visits the ecliptic and when so, then only for crossing through it. So Tantalus is like the generalization of a planet out of bounds. I have no experience with this because German astrologers usually don’t use this concept, but I guess that Tantalus is able to transfer this meaning to other objects, which it is aspecting.