InGreek mythology,Tartarus (/ˈtɑːrtərəs/;Ancient Greek:Τάρταρος,romanized: Tártaros)[1] is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for theTitans. Tartarus is the place where, according toPlato'sGorgias (c. 400 BC),souls are judged after death and where the wicked received divine punishment. Tartarus appears inearly Greek cosmology, such as inHesiod'sTheogony, where the personified Tartarus is described as one of the earliest beings to exist, alongsideChaos andGaia (Earth).
Hesiod asserts that a bronzeanvil falling fromheaven would fall nine days before it reached the earth. The anvil would take nine more days to fall from earth to Tartarus.[5] In theIliad (c. 8th century BC),Zeus asserts that Tartarus is "as far beneathHades as heaven is above earth."[6] Similarly the mythographerApollodorus, describes Tartarus as "a gloomy place in Hades as far distant from earth as earth is distant from the sky."[7]
While according to Greek mythology the realm of Hades is the place of the dead, Tartarus also has a number of inhabitants. WhenCronus came to power as the King of theTitans, he imprisoned the three ancient one-eyedCyclopes and only the hundred-armedHecatonchires in Tartarus and set the monsterCampe as its guard. Campe was part scorpion and had a ring of animal heads around her waist, snapping at anyone who dared to get near. She also carried a whip to torture theCyclopes and the hundred-armed ones. Zeus killed Campe and released these imprisoned giants to aid in his conflict with the Titans. The gods ofOlympus eventually triumphed. Cronus and many of the other Titans were banished to Tartarus, thoughPrometheus,Epimetheus, and female Titans such asMetis were spared. Other gods could be sentenced to Tartarus as well. In the Homeric hymn to Hermes,Apollo threatens to throw Hermes into Tartarus. Apollo himself was almost condemned to Tartarus by Zeus for the act of killing the Cyclops. The Hecatonchires became guards of Tartarus's prisoners. Later, when Zeus overcame the monsterTyphon, he threw him into "wide Tartarus".[8]
Originally,Tartarus was used only to confine dangers to the gods of Olympus and their predecessors. In later mythologies, Tartarus became a space dedicated to the imprisonment and torment of mortals who had sinned against the gods, and each punishment was unique to the condemned. For example:
KingSisyphus was sent to Tartarus for killing guests and travelers at his castle in violation of his hospitality, seducing his niece, and reporting one of Zeus's sexual conquests by telling the river godAsopus of the whereabouts of his daughterAegina (who had been taken away by Zeus).[9] But regardless of the impropriety of Zeus's frequent conquests, Sisyphus overstepped his bounds by considering himself a peer of the gods who could rightfully report their indiscretions. When Zeus orderedThanatos to chain up Sisyphus in Tartarus, Sisyphus tricked Thanatos by asking him how the chains worked and ended up chaining Thanatos; as a result there was no more death. This causedAres to free Thanatos and turn Sisyphus over to him.[10] Sometime later, Sisyphus hadPersephone send him back to the surface to scold his wife for not burying him properly. Sisyphus was forcefully dragged back to Tartarus byHermes when he refused to go back to the Underworld after that. In Tartarus, Sisyphus was forced forever to try to roll a large boulder to the top of a mountain slope, which, no matter how many times he nearly succeeded in his attempt, would always roll back to the bottom.[11] This constituted the punishment (fitting the crime) of Sisyphus for daring to claim that his cleverness surpassed that of Zeus. Zeus's cunning punishment demonstrated quite the opposite to be the case, condemning Sisyphus to a humiliating eternity of futility and frustration.
KingTantalus also ended up in Tartarus after he cut up his sonPelops, boiled him, and served him as food when he was invited to dine with the gods.[12] He also stole theambrosia from the Gods and told his people its secrets.[13] Another story mentioned that he held onto a golden dog forged by Hephaestus and stolen by Tantalus's friend Pandareus. Tantalus held onto the golden dog for safekeeping and later denied to Pandareus that he had it. Tantalus's punishment for his actions (now a proverbial term for "temptation without satisfaction") was to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches raised his intended meal from his grasp. Whenever he bent down to get a drink, the water receded before he could get any. Over his head towered a threatening stone like that of Sisyphus.[14]
Ixion was the king of theLapiths, the most ancient tribe ofThessaly. Ixion grew to hate his father-in-law and ended up pushing him onto a bed of coal and wood, committing the first kin-related murder. The princes of other lands ordered that Ixion be denied the cleansing of his sin. Zeus took pity on Ixion and invited him to a meal on Olympus. But when Ixion sawHera, he fell in love with her and did some under-the-table caressing until Zeus signaled him to stop. After finding a place for Ixion to sleep, Zeus created a cloud-clone of Hera namedNephele to test him to see how far he would go to seduce Hera. Ixion made love to her, which resulted in the birth ofCentaurus, who mated with some Magnesian mares on Mount Pelion and thus begot the race of Centaurs (who are called the Ixionidae from their descent). Zeus drove Ixion from Mount Olympus and then struck him with a thunderbolt. He was punished by being tied to a winged flaming wheel that was always spinning: first in the sky and then in Tartarus. Only whenOrpheus came down to the Underworld to rescueEurydice did it stop spinning because of the music Orpheus was playing. Ixion's being strapped to the flaming wheel represented his burning lust.
In some versions, theDanaïdes murdered their husbands and were punished in Tartarus by being forced to carry water in a jug to fill a bath which would thereby wash off their sins. But the jugs were filled with cracks, so the water always leaked out.[15][16]
The giantTityos attempted to rapeLeto on Hera's orders, but was slain byApollo andArtemis. As punishment, Tityos was stretched out in Tartarus and tortured by two vultures who fed on his liver. This punishment is extremely similar to that of theTitanPrometheus.
KingSalmoneus was also mentioned to have been imprisoned in Tartarus after passing himself off as Zeus, causing the real Zeus to smite him with a thunderbolt.[17]
Arke is the sister ofIris who sided with the Titans as their messenger goddess. Zeus removed her wings following the gods' victory over the Titans and she was thrown into Tartarus with the Titans.
Ocnus was condemned in Tartarus perpetually to weave a rope of straw which, as fast as he weaves it, is just as quickly eaten by a donkey. There is no mention of what he did to deserve this fate.
When his pregnant daughterCoronis was killed by either Artemis or Apollo, KingPhlegyas set fire to the Apollonian temple at Delphi and was killed by Apollo. He was punished in Tartarus by being entombed in a rock and starved in front of an eternal feast as he shouts to the other inhabitants not to despise the gods.
According toPlato (c. 427 BC),Rhadamanthus,Aeacus andMinos were the judges of the dead and chose who went to Tartarus. Rhadamanthus judged Asian souls, Aeacus judged European souls and Minos was the deciding vote and judge of the Greek.[18] Souls regarded as unjust or perjured would go to Tartarus.[18] Those who committed crimes seen as curable would be purified there, while those who committed crimes seen as uncurable would be eternally damned, and demonstrate a warning example for the living.[18] InGorgias, Plato writes aboutSocrates tellingCallicles, who believesmight makes right,[19] that doing injustice to others is worse than suffering injustice, and most uncurable inhabitants of Tartarus were tyrants whose might gave them the opportunity to commit huge crimes.[18]Archelaus I of Macedon is mentioned as a possible example of this, whileThersites is said to be curable, because of his lack of might.[18] According to Plato'sPhaedo, the uncurable consisted of temple robbers and murderers, while sons who killed one of their parents during a status of rage but regretted this their whole life, and involuntary manslaughterers, would be taken out of Tartarus after one year, so they could ask their victims for forgiveness.[20] If they should be forgiven, they were liberated, but if not, would go back and stay there until they were finally pardoned.[20] In theRepublic, Plato mentions theMyth of Er, who is said to have been a fallen soldier who resurrected from the dead, and saw their realm.[21] According to this, the length of a punishment an adult receives for each crime in Tartarus, who is responsible for a lot of deaths, betrayed states or armies and sold them into slavery or had been involved in similar misdeeds, corresponds to ten times out of a hundred earthly years (while good deeds would be rewarded in equal measure).[21]
There were a number of entrances to Tartarus in Greek mythology. One was inAornum.[22]
In Roman mythology, sinners (as defined by the Roman societal and cultural norms of their time) are sent to Tartarus for punishment after death.Virgil describes Tartarus in great detail in theAeneid, Book VI. He described it as expansive. It is surrounded by three perimeter walls, beyond which flows a flaming river named thePhlegethon. Drinking from the Phlegethon will not kill a mortal and it will heal while causing great pain. To further prevent escape, ahydra with fifty black, gaping jaws sits atop a gate that screeches when opened. They are flanked byadamantine columns, a substance that, like diamond, was believed to be so hard that nothing can cut through it.[citation needed]
Inside the walls of Tartarus sits a wide-walled castle with a tall, iron turret.Tisiphone, one of theErinyes, who represents vengeance, stands sleepless guard at the top of the turret lashing her whip. Roman mythology describes a pit inside extending down into the earth twice as far as the distance from the lands of the living toOlympus. The twin sons of theTitanAloeus were said to be imprisoned at the bottom of this pit.[citation needed]
Tartarus occurs in theSeptuagint translation of Job (40:20 and 41:24) into Koine Greek, and inHellenistic Jewish literature from the Greek text of theBook of Enoch, dated to 400–200 BC. This states that God placed the archangelUriel "in charge of the world and of Tartarus" (20:2). Tartarus is generally understood to be the place where 200 fallenWatchers (angels) are imprisoned.[23]
Reference to the watchers of the book of Enoch is also observed inJude 1:6-7 where scripture describes Angels being bound by chains under everlasting darkness, and 2 Peter 2:4 which further describes fallen angels committed to chains in Tartarus.
InHypostasis of the Archons (also translated 'Reality of the Rulers'), an apocryphal gnostic treatise dated before 350 AD, Tartarus makes a brief appearance when Zōē (life), the daughter ofSophia (wisdom) castsIaldabaōth (demiurge) down to the bottom of the abyss of Tartarus.[24]
InThe Book of Thomas, Tartaros is claimed by Jesus to be the place where those who hear the word ofJudas Thomas and "turn away or sneer" are to be sent. These damned will be handed over to the angel or powerTartarouchos.[25]
In theNew Testament, the nounTartarus does not occur buttartaroō (ταρταρόω, "throw to Tartarus"), a shortened form of the classical Greek verbkata-tartaroō ("throw down to Tartarus"), does appear in2 Peter 2:4.Liddell–Scott provides other sources for the shortened form of this verb, includingAcusilaus (5th century BC),Joannes Laurentius Lydus (4th century AD) and theScholiast onAeschylus'sEumenides, who citesPindar relating how the earth tried totartaro "cast down"Apollo after he overcame the Python.[26] In classical texts, the longer formkata-tartaroo is often related to the throwing of theTitans down to Tartarus.[27]
TheEnglish Standard Version is one of several English versions that gives the Greek reading Tartarus as a footnote:
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell(a) and committed them to chains(b) of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
Adam Clarke reasoned that Peter's use of language relating to the Titans was an indication that the ancient Greeks had heard of a Biblical punishment offallen angels.[28] Some Evangelical Christian commentaries distinguish Tartarus as a place for wicked angels andGehenna as a place for wicked humans on the basis of this verse.[29] Other Evangelical commentaries, in reconciling that some fallen angels are chained in Tartarus, yet some not, attempt to distinguish between one type of fallen angel and another.[30]
^Homer.Odyssey,11.582–92; Tantalus's transgressions are not mentioned; they must already have been well known to Homer's late-8th-century hearers.
^The Danish government's third world aid agency's name was changed from DANAID toDANIDA at the last minute when this unfortunate connotation was discovered.
^abPlaton,Phaidon, ed. and transl. byRudolf Kassner, Jena 1906, S. 105–106.
^abPlato,Der Staat, ed. and transl. by August Horneffer, Leipzig 1908, pp. 348–351.
^The Greek Myths (Volume 1) byRobert Graves (1990), page 112: "... He used the passage which opens at Aornum in Thesprotis and, on his arrival, not only charmed the ferryman Charon..."
^Kelley Coblentz BautchA Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17–19: "no One Has Seen what I Have Seen" p134
^Bentley LaytonThe Gnostic Scriptures: "Reality of the Rulers" 95:5 p.74
^John D. TurnerThe Nag Hammadi Scriptures - The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts Complete in One Volume: Introduction to "The Book of Thomas" p.235
^A. cast into Tartarus or hell, Acus.8 J., 2 Ep.Pet.2.4, Lyd.Mens.4.158 (Pass.), Sch.T Il.14.296. Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940.
^Clarke Commentary "The ancient Greeks appear to have received, by tradition, an account of the punishment of the 'fallen angels,' and of bad men after death; and their poets did, in conformity I presume with that account, make Tartarus the place where the giants who rebelled against Jupiter, and the souls of the wicked, were confined. 'Here,' saith Hesiod, Theogon., lin. 720, 1, 'the rebellious Titans were bound in penal chains.'"
^Paul V. Harrison, Robert E. Picirilli James, 1, 2 Peter, Jude Randall House Commentaries 1992 p267 "We do not need to say, then, that Peter was reflecting or approving the Book of Enoch (20:2) when it names Tartarus as a place for wicked angels in distinction from Gehenna as the place for wicked humans."
^Vince GarciaThe Resurrection Life Study Bible 2007 p412 "If so, we have a problem: Satan and his angels are not locked up in Tartarus! Satan and his angels were alive and active in the time of Christ, and still are today! Yet Peter specifically (2 Peter 2:4) states that at least one group of angelic beings have literally been cast down to Tartarus and bound in chains until the Last Judgment. So if Satan and his angels are not currently bound in Tartarus—who is? The answer goes back~again~to the angels who interbred with humans. So then— is it impossible that Azazel is somehow another name for Satan? There may be a chance he is, but there is no way of knowing for sure. ..."
Apollodorus,Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Grimal, Pierre,The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996.ISBN978-0-631-20102-1.
Hard, Robin,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004,ISBN9780415186360.Google Books.
Hesiod,Theogony fromThe Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
Homer.Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Homer,The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
Pindar,The Odes of Pindar including the Principal Fragments with an Introduction and an English Translation by Sir John Sandys, Litt.D., FBA. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1937. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
