Tartarus ( /ˈtɑrtərəs/ , TAR -tər-əs ; Greek :
Τάρταρος Tartaros), [1] in ancient Greek
mythology , is the deep abyss that is used as
a dungeon of torment and suffering for the
wicked and as the prison for the Titans. [2] As
far below Hades as the earth is below the
heavens, [2] Tartarus is the place where,
according to Plato in Gorgias (c. 400 BC),
souls were judged after death and where the
wicked received divine punishment. Like other
primal entities (such as the Earth, Night and
Time), Tartarus was also considered to be a
primordial force or deity.
Greek mythology
In Greek mythology, Tartarus is both a deity
and a place in the underworld . In ancient
Orphic sources and in the mystery schools,
Tartarus is also the unbounded first-existing
entity from which the Light and the cosmos
are born.
In the Greek poet Hesiod 's Theogony , c. 700
BC, Tartarus was the third of the primordial
deities , following after Chaos and Gaia (Earth),
and preceding Eros, [3] and was the father, by
Gaia, of the monster Typhon . [4]
As for the place, Hesiod asserts that a bronze
anvil falling from heaven would fall nine days
before it reached the earth. The anvil would
take nine more days to fall from earth to
Tartarus. [5] In The Iliad (c. 700 BC), Zeus
asserts that Tartarus is "as far beneath Hades
as heaven is high above the earth."
While, according to Greek mythology , the
realm of Hades is the place of the dead,
Tartarus also has a number of inhabitants.
When Cronus came to power as the King of
the Titans, he imprisoned the one-eyed
Cyclopes and the hundred-armed
Hecatonchires in Tartarus and set the
monster Campe as its guard. Zeus killed
Campe and released these imprisoned giants
to aid in his conflict with the Titans. The gods
of Olympus eventually triumphed. Cronus and
many of the other Titans were banished to
Tartarus, though Prometheus , Epimetheus ,
Metis and most of the female Titans were
spared (according to Pindar , Cronus somehow
later earned Zeus' forgiveness and was
released from Tartarus to become ruler of
Elysium ). Another Titan, Atlas , was sentenced
to hold the sky on his shoulders to prevent it
from resuming its primordial embrace with the
Earth. Other gods could be sentenced to
Tartarus as well. Apollo is a prime example,
although Zeus freed him. The Hecatonchires
became guards of Tartarus' prisoners. Later,
when Zeus overcame the monster Typhon, he
threw him into "wide Tartarus". [6]
Originally, Tartarus was used only to confine
dangers to the gods of Olympus. In later
mythologies, Tartarus became the place
where the punishment fits the crime. For
example:
King Sisyphus was sent to Tartarus for
killing guests and travelers to his castle in
violation to his hospitality, seducing his niece,
and reporting one of Zeus' sexual conquests
by telling the river god Asopus of the
whereabouts of his daughter Aegina (who had
been taken away by Zeus). But regardless of
the impropriety of Zeus' frequent conquests,
Sisyphus overstepped his bounds by
considering himself a peer of the gods who
could rightfully report their indiscretions.
When Zeus ordered Thanatos 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 caused
Ares to free Thanatos and turn Sisyphus over
to him. Sometime later, Sisyphus had
Persephone send him back to the surface to
scold his wife for not burying him properly.
Sisyphus was forcefully dragged back to
Tartarus by Hermes when he refused to go
back to the Underworld after that. In Tartarus,
Sisyphus would be forced to roll a large
boulder up a mountainside which when he
almost reached the crest, rolled away from
Sisyphus and rolled back down repeatedly.
This represented the punishment of Sisyphus
claiming that his cleverness surpassed that of
Zeus, causing the god to make the boulder
roll away from Sisyphus, binding Sisyphus to
an eternity of frustration.
King Tantalus was also in Tartarus after he
cut up his son Pelops , boiled him, and served
him as food when he was invited to dine with
the gods. He also stole the ambrosia from the
Gods and told his people its secrets. Another
story mentioned that he held onto a golden
dog forged by Hephaestus and stolen by
Tantalus' friend Pandareus. Tantalus held onto
the golden dog for safekeeping and later
denied to Pandareus that he had it. Tantalus'
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.
Ixion was the king of the Lapiths, the most
ancient tribe of Thessaly. Ixion grew to hate
his father-in-law and ended up pushing him
onto a bed of coal and woods committing the
first kin-related murder. The princes of other
lands ordered that Ixion be denied of any sin-
cleansing. Zeus took pity on Ixion and invited
him to a meal on Olympus. But when Ixion
saw Hera , 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 named Nephele to test him to see how
much he loved Hera. Ixion made love to her,
which resulted in the birth of Centaurus , who
mated with some Magnesian mares on Mount
Pelion and thus engendered 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 when Orpheus came down to the
Underworld to rescue Eurydice did it stop
spinning because of the music Orpheus was
playing. Ixion being strapped to the flaming
wheel represented his burning lust.
In some versions, the Danaides 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 actually sieves so the water
always leaked out. [7]
The giant Tityos was slain by Apollo and
Artemis after attempting to rape Leto on
Hera's orders. 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 the Titan
Prometheus .
King Salmoneus 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.
According to Plato (c. 427 BC),
Rhadamanthus , Aeacus and Minos 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.
Plato also proposes the concept that sinners
were cast under the ground to be punished in
accordance with their sins in the Myth of Er .
Cronus, the ruler of the Titans, was thrown
down into the pits of Tartarus by his children.
There were a number of entrances to Tartarus
in Greek mythology . One was in Aornum .
Roman mythology
In Roman mythology, Tartarus is the place
where sinners are sent. Virgil describes it in
the Aeneid as a gigantic place, surrounded by
the flaming river Phlegethon and triple walls
to prevent sinners from escaping from it. It is
guarded by a hydra with fifty black gaping
jaws, which sits at a screeching gate
protected by columns of solid adamantine , a
substance akin to diamond – so hard that
nothing will cut through it. Inside, there is a
castle with wide walls, and a tall iron turret.
Tisiphone , one of the Erinyes who represents
revenge, stands guard sleepless at the top of
this turret lashing a whip. There is a pit inside
which is said to extend down into the earth
twice as far as the distance from the lands of
the living to Olympus. At the bottom of this
pit lie the Titans, the twin sons of Aloeus , and
many other sinners. Still more sinners are
contained inside Tartarus, with punishments
similar to those of Greek myth.
Biblical Pseudepigrapha
Tartarus is only known in Hellenistic Jewish
literature from the Greek text of 1 Enoch,
dated to 400–200 BC. This states that God
placed the archangel Uriel "in charge of the
world and of Tartarus" (20:2). Tartarus is
generally understood to be the place where
200 fallen Watchers ( angels) are imprisoned.
[9]
Tartarus also appears in sections of the
Jewish Sibylline Oracles. E.g. Sib. Or. 4:186.
New Testament
See also: Christian views on hell
In the New Testament , the noun Tartarus does
not occur but tartaroo (ταρταρόω, "throw to
Tartarus"), a shortened form of the classical
Greek verb kata-tartaroo ("throw down to
Tartarus"), does appear in 2 Peter 2:4. Liddell
Scott provides other sources for the
shortened form of this verb, including
Acusilaus (5th century BC), Joannes
Laurentius Lydus (4th century AD) and the
Scholiast on Aeschylus' Eumenides, who cites
Pindar relating how the earth tried to tartaro
"cast down" Apollo after he overcame the
Python. [10] In classical texts, the longer form
kata-tartaroo is often related to the throwing
of the Titans down to Tartarus. [11]
The ESV 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 [1] and
committed them to chains [2] of gloomy
darkness to be kept until the judgment;"
Footnotes [1] 2:4 Greek Tartarus
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 of fallen angels. [12]
Some Evangelical Christian commentaries
distinguish Tartarus as a place for wicked
angels and Gehenna as a place for wicked
humans on the basis of this verse. [13] 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. [14]
In popular culture
Tartarus is featured in Rick Riordan 's Percy
Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes
of Olympus novel series, where it serves its
mythological role as a location in the
Underworld. It is further noted as the place
where the spirits of defeated monsters travel
and undergo regeneration, allowing them to
eventually return to Earth. As with the ancient
Greeks, Riordan also personifies Tartarus as a
sentient being; in this case as the husband of
Gaea and father of the Giants . The rivers of
the Underworld are revealed to be his
circulatory system, and his actual form is the
realm from Greek myth. He also displays the
ability to "project" a humanoid form of
considerable power. During the Mark of Athena ,
Nico Di Angelo gets trapped in Tartarus and
nearly goes insane. Percy Jackson and
Annabeth Chase end up trapped there at the
end of the book and spend the House of Hades
wandering Tartarus to find a way out. They
succeed with the help of the Titan Iapeteus
and the Giant Damasen, but both sacrifice
themselves to save them from Tartarus
himself.
Tartarus is one of the major locations in
Persona 3 but instead of an underground
place, it is a high tower that only emerges in
the middle of the night, known as the Dark
Hour, where the main characters' school
should be. It is the main location where you
engage in combat, as well as being the place
where many main story moments take place.
Throughout the game you are climbing up the
floors and fighting Shadows, the main
monsters you fight in the game. Taratarus is
also the location in which many main story
segments take place, such as various fights
with Strega (major antagonists of the game),
and the final boss battle. It is the background
for most of the story's plot. It also makes in
appearance in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax as
one of the main backgrounds of the game,
emerging where the school the Persona 4
cast goes to is supposed to be, in a time
similar to the Dark Hour.
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