Tartarus

In Greek mythology, Tartarus was both a primordial deity that existed before the Olympians and the name of a region deep below the earth, used as a prison for the gods’ enemies. It lay far beneath Hades, the home of the dead, and the sources describe it as a gloomy pit shut in by bronze walls and gates.

Tartarus Etymology

The name is the Greek Tartaros, in Latin Tartarus, and is also found in the plural form Tartara. Hesiod calls it “misty Tartarus in the depths of the wide-pathed earth” (Hesiod, Theogony 119), and Homer speaks of “murky Tartarus” (Homer, Iliad 8.13). It is the sunless abyss below Hades.

Tartarus as a God

In Hesiod’s Theogony, Chaos came into being first, then broad-breasted Gaia, then misty Tartarus in the depths of the earth, and then Eros, the most beautiful of the immortal gods (Theogony 116–120). Tartarus is thus named after Chaos and Gaia and before Eros. Hesiod gives him no parents.

Tartarus has one child in the ancient sources. When Zeus had defeated the Titans, Gaia bore her youngest child, Typhoeus, in love with Tartarus (Theogony 820–822). Apollodorus says the same: after the gods overcame the Giants, Earth, still more enraged, had intercourse with Tartarus and brought forth Typhon in Cilicia (Apollodorus, Library 1.6.3).

Tartarus as a Place

As a place, Tartarus was far below the home of Hades and was the most horrible prison in the universe. Hesiod says (Theogony 720–725) that a bronze anvil falling from heaven would take nine days and nights to reach the earth and another nine to reach Tartarus, which lies as far beneath the earth as heaven is above it. Homer gives a similar distance: Zeus threatens to hurl any god who disobeys him into Tartarus, the deepest gulf beneath the earth, with gates of iron and a threshold of bronze, “as far beneath Hades as heaven is above earth” (Iliad 8.13–16).

Hesiod describes a bronze fence around it, with night in three layers poured around its neck and the roots of the earth and the sea growing above it (Theogony 726–728). Poseidon fixed bronze doors, and a wall runs on both sides. A great chasm lies within, and a man who passed the gates would not reach the floor within a whole year, but would be carried this way and that by storm after storm (Theogony 732–733, 740–743). Virgil, who places Tartarus in the underworld, describes a wide fortress with a triple wall, surrounded by the fiery river Phlegethon, with an adamant gate and an iron tower where the Fury Tisiphone sits sleepless as the guard (Virgil, Aeneid 6.548–556). Inside, a many-headed Hydra sits, and Tartarus itself drops twice as far beneath the shades as the sky rises above the earth (Aeneid 6.576–579).

Tartarus was not where all the dead went. In Plato the judges Rhadamanthus, Aeacus and Minos decide where the dead go, either to the Isles of the Blest or to Tartarus, the prison of those who have lived unjustly (Plato, Gorgias 523b, 524a). In the Phaedo the rivers Pyriphlegethon and Cocytus flow into Tartarus, and those judged incurable because of great sacrilege or murder are cast into it and never come out, while those who did great but curable wrongs, such as violence against a father or mother, are thrown in and carried out again after a year (Plato, Phaedo 113e–114b). In Virgil the judge of Tartarus is Rhadamanthus, who questions the guilty and makes them confess (Aeneid 6.566–569).

Titanomachy

In Hesiod, Uranus bound the Hecatoncheires Cottus, Briareus and Gyes and shut them under the earth (Theogony 617–623); in Apollodorus he also bound the Cyclopes and cast them into Tartarus (Apollodorus, Library 1.1.2). When Cronus took power he shut them up again in Tartarus, and Apollodorus names their jailer, Campe (Library 1.1.5, 1.2.1). Zeus freed the Cyclopes, who in gratitude gave him thunder, lightning and the thunderbolt (Theogony 501–506), and on Gaia’s advice the gods brought the Hecatoncheires back up to the light (Theogony 624–628). In Apollodorus, Earth foretold victory to Zeus if he had the prisoners of Tartarus as allies, so he killed Campe and loosed their bonds (Apollodorus, Library 1.2.1). With these allies Zeus won the Titanomachy, and the Titans were thrown into chains beneath the earth, in Tartarus (Theogony 717–720, 729–731). Homer names Cronus and Iapetus among those who dwell there (Iliad 8.478–481).

After the Titanomachy, the Hecatoncheires became the guards of the prison. Hesiod says that Gyes, Cottus and Briareus live at the bronze gates as Zeus’ trusty guardians, and that Poseidon made Briareus his son-in-law (Theogony 734–735, 817–819). Apollodorus also says that after the victory the Titans were shut up in Tartarus with the Hundred-Handers set over them as guards (Library 1.2.1).

Other Prisoners of Tartarus

Typhoeus, the monster who challenged Zeus, was hurled into wide Tartarus by the angry god after Zeus had blasted him (Theogony 868). Pindar also says that Typhon lies in dreadful Tartarus (Pindar, Pythian 1.15–16).

The famous sinners are placed in the underworld by Homer, who does not name Tartarus: Tityus, whose liver is torn by two vultures, Tantalus, who stands in water he cannot drink beside fruit he cannot reach, and Sisyphus, who pushes a great stone uphill that always rolls back (Odyssey 11.576–600). In the Sibyl’s description of Tartarus in Virgil are the Titans hurled down by the thunderbolt, the Aloadae, Salmoneus, Tityus, Ixion and Pirithous, and Theseus sitting condemned for ever (Aeneid 6.580–601, 6.616–618).

Tartarus Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 116–122, 501–506, 617–628, 717–745, 817–822, 868; Homer, Iliad 8.13–16, 8.478–481 and Odyssey 11.576–600; Apollodorus, Library 1.1.2, 1.1.5, 1.2.1, 1.6.3; Pindar, Pythian 1.15–16; Plato, Gorgias 523–524 and Phaedo 113–114; Virgil, Aeneid 6.548–627.

See Also: Chaos, Gaea, Eros, Hades, Titans, Hecatoncheires