315-332. This is an expansion of Metam. xi. 146 f.,
‘Ille perosus opes silvas et rura colebat,
Panaque montanis habitantem semper in antris.’
363 ff. The punishment referred to is certainly more appropriate for avarice than for the offence committed by Tantalus: cp. Hor. Sat. i. 1. 68. The story of Tantalus is alluded to several times in Ovid, as Metam. iv. 458, and told by Hyginus, Fab. lxxxii. Perhaps our author rather followed Fulgentius, Mythol. ii. 18, who quotes from Petronius,
‘Divitis haec magni facies erit, omnia late
Qui tenet, et sicco concoquit ore famem.’
Cp. Mirour, 7621 ff.,
‘Dame Avarice est dite auci
Semblable au paine Tantali,’ &c.
370. This seems to mean that it serves for the punishment of the avaricious; but from what follows in 391 ff. we gather that the pains of avarice in this life also are to be compared with this particular pain of hell, and so the application is made in the Mirour, 7621-7632.