Tartarus (mythology)
In Greek mythology, the Tartar (Tartărus, and this from the ancient Greek, Τάρτᾰρος, Τάρταρος; romanization, Tártăros, Tártaros; pronunciation, Classical: Tatars, Koiné: tˈartaro̞s, Byzantine: tˈartaros), described as "dark and situated at the bottom of the earth", is a deep abyss used as a dungeon of suffering and a prison for the titans. On many occasions the limit and the name of the underworld is not clear as Hades or Tartarus, but the truth is that it was under the underworld, as deep as Like Earth, Gaea, it was from Heaven, Uranus. According to Plato's Phaedo (ca. 400 BC), Tartarus was the place where souls were judged after death and where the wicked were punished. In Theogony</ According to Hesiod, Tartarus is the third of the primordial gods to exist, after Chaos and Gaia, but before Erebus. From a cosmological point of view, Tartarus was the subterranean region located in the bowels of the Earth, as opposed to the dome of heaven, which stood above it. Hesiod calls it both in the neutral gender Τάρταρα (to refer to it as a place) and Τάρταρος, as a divine personification and progenitor of a progeny.
Family
According to Higinus, Tartarus is from the lineage of Ether and Earth, but he is the only author to give it affiliation. As primordial or protogono it sprang up spontaneously by itself. the father, with Gaia, of the monster Typhon, of the dracaena Echidna and of the tribes of giants that fought in the Gigantomachy. However, this Echidna kidnapped walkers until she was killed by Argos Panoptes, while she was asleep. Another lesser-known version describes the union of Tartarus and Nemesis, which produced the Telkines, called Acteo, Megalesio, Ormeno, and Lyco. Campe could also be the offspring of Tartarus, although no author offers his affiliation, at least Nono imagines her in a similar way to Typhon. In the same way, Higino calls the consort of Tártaro with the name of Tártara, which seems to be a chthonic invocation of Terra, and of the In the same way, he confuses titans and giants, calling his children Ceo, Iapetus, Enceladus or Typhon, among others (and goes several more names that have been preserved corrupt). The Orphic versions, which are so fond of symbology, imagined Tartarus as the father of Hecate.
Greek Mythology
In Greek mythology, Tartarus is both a deity and a place in the nether world, deeper even than Hades. In ancient Orphic sources and in the mystery schools it is also the unlimited "thing" that existed first, from which light and the cosmos were born. In his Theogony, Hesiod tells that Tartarus was one of the primordial deities, along with Chaos, Gaia and Eros. He also asserts that a bronze anvil will fall from heaven for nine days to reach Earth, and that it will take nine more days to fall from there to Tartarus. In the Iliad, Zeus says that Tartarus is "as far below Hades as earth is below heaven." Being a place so far from the sun and so deep in the earth, it is surrounded by three layers of night, which surround a wall of bronze that in turn encompasses Tartarus. While, according to Greek mythology, Hades is the Home of the dead, Tartarus also has a number of inhabitants. When Cronos, the reigning Titan, seized power he imprisoned the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires in Tartarus. Zeus freed them to help him in his fight with the Titans. The gods of Olympus ended up defeating them and threw many of them into Tartarus; the poets explicitly cite how Zeus condemned Menoetius, Cronus, Arce, Iapetus and other Titans in general. Even some Titans were not condemned there, such as Atlas, Epimetheus, Prometheus, Helius or the Titan goddesses. The Titan prison was guarded by the Hecatonchires, three giant jailers, each with fifty heads and a hundred strong arms. Later, when Zeus defeated the monster Typhon, he also threw it into the same pit.At least one Orphic version tells us that both Ophion and Eurynome were expelled, by Cronus and Rhea, into the depths of Tartarus or the Ocean.
Condemned in Tartarus
In later authors, Tartarus had already become the place where punishment was adapted to the crime, a hell in the most prosaic sense. There, perpetually condemned, infamous well-known people of all genealogical lineages paid their sentences. Sisyphus, who was a thief and a murderer, was sentenced to eternally push a rock uphill only to see it fall under its own weight; it is said that he dared to betray the river god Asopus the whereabouts of Aegina, betraying Zeus himself. there was Ixion, the first human to shed the blood of a relative. He made his mother-in-law fall into a pit full of flaming coals to avoid paying for her wedding gifts. His just punishment was to spend eternity spinning on a flaming wheel, which later poets located in Tartarus, rather than the heavens. Tantalus' crime was serving the gods his own son Pelops, crumbled and boiled, at a banquet. He also dared to steal ambrosia, the food of the gods, and share the divine secrets with his companions. Still others add a third crime, theft with perjury, as Pandareus had stolen Zeus's golden mastiff and entrusted it to Tantalus, who later swore not to have received it. He now hangs, perennially consumed by thirst and hunger, from the branch of a fruit tree above a lake whose waves reach his waist, and sometimes his chin; every time she tries to reach for a piece of fruit a gust of wind blows it out of her reach, and every time she tries to drink the water escapes her lips and hands. The Danaides, for having killed their husbands on their wedding day, each one with a pin, they were condemned to the endless task of transporting water in pitchers pierced like sieves. Ticio remains lying on the plain, unable to defend himself; two vultures on one side and the other gnawed at his liver for having tried to rape Leto going to Pito. Ascalaphus revealed to his lord Hades that Persephone had eaten pomegranate seed, so Demeter placed a heavy rock on him in Hades, but after being freed by Heracles he transformed him into an owl. Salmoneus was imprisoned in Tartarus for pretending to be the god Zeus, until the real Zeus killed him with lightning. Phlegias, to avenge the death of his daughter Coronis, set fire to a temple of Apollo at Delphi, until Apollo killed him by shooting at him. Amphion, maddened with grief for having lost all his children to Apollo and Artemis, dared to desecrate a sanctuary of Apollo and he he riddled him with arrows, sending him to Tartarus. Pirithous was sentenced to not being able to get up from a chair, a punishment imposed by Hades for having pretended to Persephone in an attempted kidnapping. Also the Aloadas, for having claimed Artemis and daring to pile up mountains to besiege Olympus itself; they were tied with snakes to each side of a column; and between them, on the column to which they were tied, was perched an owl.It is also said that Apollo punished Crotopus for having mistreated his daughter, who was pregnant with Apollo.
Roman mythology
In Roman mythology, Tartarus is the place where sinners were sent. Virgil describes it in Book VI of the Aeneid as a gigantic place, surrounded by the flaming river Phlegeton and triple walls to prevent sinners from escaping from it. It is guarded by a hydra with fifty enormous black jaws, which sat on a creaking gate protected by diamond columns. Inside, there is a castle with wide walls and a high iron keep. Tisiphone, the Fury who represented vengeance, stands sleepless guard at the top of this keep, lashing a whip. Inside is a well that is said to go deep into the earth twice the distance between the land of the living and Olympus. At the bottom of this well are the Titans, the Alóadas and many other sinners. Inside Tartarus there are many more sinners, punished in a similar way to those in the Greek myths.
In the Old Testament and the Apocrypha
The Greek version of the Bible, known as the Septuagint, uses the term Tartarus in the Book of Job (Job 40:20 and 41:32, 42 in some versions) as a translation of the Hebrew הַשָּׂדֶ֗ה (haśśāḏeh) which the other versions interpret as "from the field". The Greek text of the Book of Enoch refers to God placing the archangel Uriel "in charge of the World and Tartarus" (1 Enoch 20:2). In the same work it is indicated that Tartarus is the place where the two hundred fallen angels known as Grigori or Watchers were imprisoned. The Sibylline Oracles, a Jewish work but intended to be considered pagan, repeatedly mention Tartarus as a synonym for Sheol.
In the New Testament and Gnostic Literature
The noun Tartarus is not used in the New Testament, but the verb form ταρταρόω (tartaròō) is used, which is a shortened form of Classical Greek κατα Ταρταρὁω (kata-tartaròō) "cast down Tartarus", in a single passage from the Second Letter of Peter (2:4) a writing that is counted between the latest in the Bible. This passage has been seen by scholars as echoing the mention of Tartarus in the Book of Enoch. The Gnostic text Hypostasis of the Archons, discovered at Nag Hammadi, presents Tartarus as the place into which Zoe, the daughter of Sophia, casts Ialdabaoth, the Demiurge.
In popular culture
Novels and series
Tartaro appears as an element of the fictional universe of novels by writer Rick Riordan featuring Percy Jackson. Like the rest of the series, it is based on Greek mythology: it is an underworld location where the spirits of defeated monsters travel and undergo regeneration, allowing them to eventually return to Earth. Like the ancient Greeks, Riordan also personifies Tartarus as a sentient being; in this case, husband of Gaea and father of the Giants.
In Stephen Baxter's novel Titan, the astronauts call "Tartaro Base" to its landing site on the satellite of Saturn; Titan.
In the manga series Fairy Tail, Tartarus is the name of one of the three main dark guilds (member of the Balam Alliance).
In the series My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, Tartarus is the place where the most dangerous and powerful prisoners are kept.
In the manga My Hero Academia, Tartarus is the name of a maximum security prison where the most dangerous villains are imprisoned.
Video Games
Tartarus is one of the main locations in Persona 3 but instead of being an underground site, it is a tall tower that only appears at night, during the Dark Hour.
Tartaro is also the name of the final boss in the video game Halo 2, the Arbiter's main rival.
In Assassin's Creed: Odyssey simulations, prisoners escape from Tartarus with the goal of reaching the world of the living.
In the video game Hades, the protagonist Zagreo (son of Hades) seeks to escape from his home deep in the underworld to the surface, the initial stage being Tartarus.
In the video game Age of Mythology, the campaign story deals with the Titan Cronos' attempts to escape from Tartarus.