The concept of the existence of heaven and hell could be considered the foundation of every mythology. The fundamental difference between the two realms, is that a heaven is a place with eternal happiness and luxury, while hell is a place of suffering and despair. It is not this difference that interests and binds most believers to follow their spiritual teachings, but that every human is destined to spend eternity in one of these realms. Which realm they belong to, depends on how well they follow their religious teachings. In Greek mythology, Tartarus is the deep abyss, used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for wicked souls. Monsters, mortals, and even gods are thrown into this fiery pit as punishment. Even though many legends identify Tartarus as the place of the damned, some literature such as the poem theogony by the Greek poet Hesiod, describes Tartarus as a primordial being.
According to the creation myth of greek mythology, tartarus is one of the first four primordial deities that were born. Tartarus was the third of the primordial deities, following chaos and Gaia. Even as a deity, Tartarus was viewed as the personification of the greek hell, as the god of the abyss. Some stories identify Tartarus as the son of Aether, who is a descendant of chaos, and Gaia, the mother earth. Other stories identify gaia as the sister of Tartarus. As for these stories, Tartarus and Gaia together gave birth to many monstrous creatures. The half-human half serpent monstress Echidna, who is also considered the mother of all monsters, is considered to be a child of Tartarus and Gaia. Typhoeus, who is described as a monster with fire-flashing eyes and a winged body, and the father of all monsters is also a child of the pair. Typhoeus and echidna gave birth to the fiercest monsters that live in the underworld. Some of these monsters are Cerberus, the hydra, and the Nemean. Some legends also claim Typhon, who is one of the deadliest creatures in greek mythology to be a child of Tartarus and Gaia. As a deity, Tartarus is responsible for carrying the souls of sinners from earth to hell, where they meet judgment. He is also responsible to imprison wicked souls and punish them.
Many of the greek literature are more inclined to consider Tartarus as a place, than a deity. It is the darkest place in the underworld that no soul could ever escape, unless the place itself allows it to. The realm of hades and Tartarus are viewed as two different realms in some mythologies. According to these tales, the distance from the realm of hades to Tartarus is the same as the distance between the earth and the sky. It’s as even though the realm of hades is also a place for the dead, Tartarus would be the gloomiest place, where only the wicked would end up going. The Greek poet Hesiod mentions in his literature, claims 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. In the earliest stories, it is mentioned that Uranus, the sky god, used it as a place to banish those who plotted against him and his children who doesn’t look pleasing enough.
Such children were the one-eyed cyclopes and the hundred-armed hecatonchires. Uranus was disgusted at how they looked, so he imprisoned them in Tartarus. Cronus who defeated Uranus didn’t release the two hideous monsters, and set the monster Campe as its guard, though he promised his mother Gaia to release cyclopes and hecatonchires. Zeus, who is the son of Cronus and ray-ah, killed Campe and freed cyclopes and hecatonchires to rebel against Cronus. After the victory of the olympian gods, Zeus imprisoned Cronus and many of the titans in Tartarus, and hecatonchires became the guard of Tartarus.
Originally, Tartarus was a place where only gods and monsters got imprisoned. But the latter tales describe, mortals being imprisoned in this deep gloomy place as well. But in most cases, these mortals have something to do with offending gods. Tartarus is surrounded by three perimeter walls, beyond which flows a flaming river named "the Phlegethon”. At the top of the gate of Tartarus sits a hydra with gaping jaws who watch over Tartarus to prevent any escapes. The gates itself is made of adamantine which is a substance that looks like diamond but is so hard that nothing can cut through it. Inside the walls of Tartarus sits a wide-walled castle with a tall iron turret. On the turret, stands Tisiphone, who is the personification of vengeance. She watches over Tartarus sleeplessly.
Just as the uniqueness of the place, the residents of Tartarus also have a unique and interesting storyline entangled with them. The goddess Eris, is described more-as a residence of Tartarus than a prisoner. This is mainly because she is the goddess of strife, discord, contention, and rivalry. So many argue that the goddess lives there on her own accord but none of the texts portrays her as a ruler or as the queen of Tartarus. She is mostly recognized for engineering the trojan war. Eris is responsible for initiating the dispute between Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena, by throwing an apple which was inscribed "To the fairest." This rivalry between the three goddesses brought about the events leading up to the Trojan War.
Even the prisoners of Tartarus have an interesting storyline, and greek mythology extensively describes their wickedness, which justifies their fate. Each of these prisoners has a punishment that was given to them as for their deeds. One such prisoner is king tantalus, who ended up in Tartarus after murdering his own son Pelops. He even boiled him and served him as food, when he was invited to dine with the gods. Tantalus also stole “the ambrosia”, which is the divine food that grants immortality to gods, and told his people its secrets. Tantalus' actions are mostly considered to be driven by temptation. For this reason, his punishment was to stand in a pool of water, beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches would magically move to make the fruit out of his reach. Whenever he bent down to get a drink, the water moved away before he could get any.
Another group of prisoners in Tartarus is the danaides, who were the 50 daughters of Danaus. Danaus wished for his daughters to remain virgins and did not want them to go ahead with the marriages. But to protect his land from war, Danaus agreed to his daughters' marriage, with the 50 sons of Danaus' twin brother Aegyptus, a mythical king of Egypt. But Danaus ordered by his daughters to kill their husbands on the first night of their weddings. Danaides did as they were commanded, except for hypermnestra, who spared her husband lynceus, because he respected her desire to remain a virgin. Later, lynceus killed Danaus as revenge for the death of his brothers. The 49 danaides who killed their husbands, were taken to Tartarus and forced to carry a jug to fill a bathtub. Once they collect enough water to have a bath in it, their sins would be washed away. But the jugs and the bathtub were filled with cracks, so the water always leaked out before they could fill it. But in another variation of the story, the 49 danaides buried their bridegrooms and paid funeral honors to their bodies. On seeing this, Zeus commanded Athena and Hermes to purify the 49 women of their sins.
Another interesting king who is punished eternally in Tartarus is king Sisyphus. He is not only evil but also cheated death twice. Sisyphus considered himself cleverer than Zeus, so he often tried to rebel against the rules set out by the god. He is known to kill the guests and travellers in his palace, which is a violation of guest obligations, which fell under Zeus' domain. This angered the king of gods but this alone didn’t make Zeus condemn Sisyphus to hell. He also seduced his niece in an attempt to dethrone and murder his brother Salmoneus. The most prominent deed that condemned him to hell is deceiving death twice. Sisyphus revealed to the river god “asopus” of the whereabouts of his daughter aegina, who was taken away by Zeus himself. This angered the god immensely, so Zeus ordered Thanatos, the personification of death, to chain up Sisyphus in Tartarus. But Sisyphus tricked Thanatos by asking how the chains work and thereby chaining Thanatos. Once Thanatos was bound by the strong chains, no one died on earth. So the gods, especially A-rees, who rules over battlefields, interfered and with much effort-and threat convinced Sisyphus to release Thanatos. When he really did die, Sisyphus complained to Persephone and made her send him back to the surface, to scold his wife for not burying him as per his wishes. Once he reached the surface, Sisyphus refused to go back, and thereby tricking death twice. Gods assigned Hermes to hunt down Sisyphus and drag him back to Tartarus. This time in Tartarus, Sisyphus was forced forever to try to roll a large rock to the top of a mountain. Every time he almost reaches the top, the rock would roll back to the bottom. This punishment is to humiliate him forever, for not being able to fulfill a simple task, since he claimed himself to be cleverer than Zeus.
These are a few of the interesting prisoners in Tartarus, but of course, the greek literature describes a list of other prisoners who are just as interesting as those mentioned in this video. The book of Enoch also talks about the existence of Tartarus. In chapter 20 of the book of Enoch, archangel Uriel is described to be in charge of the world and of Tartarus. The text also describes Tartarus as the place where the 200 angels, who are identified as watchers, that later betrayed god, are imprisoned. Some evangelical Christian commentaries distinguish Tartarus as a place for wicked angels, and gehenna as a place for wicked humans. Regardless of the belief, Tartarus is an interesting place, and holds a vital importance, especially in greek mythology.
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