Le SUPPLICE DE TANTALE. Hélas! plus d'un de nous en la verte jeunesse, A vu devant son nez passer tous les plaisirs; Sans pouvoir de ses dents qui s'aiguisaient sans cesse: Comme TANTALE en sa détresse, Mordre à l'objet de ses désirs. Résignation par M. Ste. Beuve.

Trustman, Benjamin A., Trustman, Julia M. · 1842

This print shows Tantalus, son of Zeus after having served his son Pelops to his peer Gods for dinner. As a consequence, he was punished by Zeus to endure torments. Daumier's sufferings of Tantalus consist in languishing for champagne, goose-liver paté, and fish floating by in front of him. Note the pre-surrealistic bunch of grapes in front of his face. One may ponder the question whether this print should possibly be seen as a critique of the affluence found in the upper class, compared to the still enchained poverty of the lower classes in France. During this time, 1840's, a quarrel between painters of the classic and romantic schools had fully flared up. Delacroix asked the "loaded" question: "Who is going to liberate us from the old Greeks?" Daumier succeeded to answer it his own way by showing historic personalities such as Hercules, Pygmalion or Agamemnon in absurd situations.