In Greek mythology, Tartarus is both a primordial deity born of Chaos and a cosmic place: the deepest abyss in the universe, located beneath the Underworld, where Zeus imprisoned the defeated Titans and where the greatest criminals atone for their crimes for eternity.
Tartarus
Tartarus
8 min read
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born of Chaos, according to Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BCE), among the very first primordial entities, alongside Gaia, Nyx, and Erebus.
- A cosmic realm as far below Hades as the Earth is below the sky: a bronze anvil would fall for nine days before reaching its bottom, according to Hesiod.
- After the Titanomachy, Zeus imprisoned the defeated Titans there (including Cronus), guarded by the Hecatoncheires.
- United with Gaia to father Typhon, the most fearsome monster in Greek mythology and Zeus's final adversary.
- Houses mythology's most infamous condemned souls: Sisyphus, Tantalus, Ixion, and the Danaids — punished for eternity for their crimes against the gods.
Works & Achievements
By uniting with Gaia, Tartarus sires Typhon, the most fearsome of all Greek monsters, with a hundred serpent heads. This offspring represents the forces of raw, primordial chaos that threaten the Olympian order.
Tartarus serves as the eternal prison for the defeated Titans, upholding the order of the universe under Zeus's rule. This fundamental cosmic function is described in detail by Hesiod in the *Theogony*.
In Greek tradition, Tartarus evolves into a place of punishment for mortals guilty of *hubris*, featuring eternal and exemplary torments such as those of Tantalus, Sisyphus, Ixion, and Tityos.
The depiction of Tartarus as an abyss of fire, darkness, and eternal punishment profoundly shaped Christian representations of Hell. The Latin term *Tartarus* is used in certain early Christian texts as a synonym for Hell.
Anecdotes
Tartarus is one of the first entities to emerge from the primordial Chaos, alongside Gaia (the Earth) and Eros, according to Hesiod. It is neither truly a person nor simply a place: it is a primordial power dwelling at the very bottom of the universe, as ancient as the world itself.
After ten years of bitter war — the Titanomachy — Zeus and the gods of Olympus defeated the Titans. To imprison them forever, Zeus hurled them into Tartarus and sealed it shut with heavy bronze gates. Hesiod specifies that a bronze anvil dropped from the sky would take nine days to reach the surface of the earth, and nine more days to reach the bottom of Tartarus — a poetic way of conveying the infinite depths of the abyss.
Tartarus united with Gaia to father Typhon, the most terrifying monster in all of Greek mythology: a creature with a hundred serpent heads capable of breathing fire. Typhon nearly destroyed Zeus himself in an epic battle, before being defeated and cast down into the depths in turn — or chained beneath Mount Etna, depending on the version.
Tartarus serves as a place of eternal punishment for mortals who gravely offended the gods. Tantalus suffers there from perpetual hunger and thirst, Sisyphus is condemned to roll a boulder endlessly toward a summit, and Ixion spins for eternity on a wheel of fire. These exemplary punishments illustrated for the Greeks the consequences of hubris — excessive pride in the face of the gods.
Primary Sources
“From Chaos were born Erebus and black Night. [...] The misty Tartarus lies at the far edge of the vast earth. [...] A boundless gulf: were one to pass through the gates and the bronze threshold, one would fall for a full year without ever reaching the ground.”
“As far beneath Hades as the sky is above the earth, so far beneath the earth lies Tartarus.”
“Tartarus is the lowest point of the earth, to which the most guilty souls are dragged, and from which they can never escape.”
“The judges of the dead pronounce their verdicts, and the souls of the greatest wrongdoers are sent to Tartarus, where their punishment is made visible to those who commit the same crimes.”
“Tartarus itself plunges headlong into a chasm of shadow, twice as deep as the height that separates the earth from the stars of heaven.”
Key Places
The deepest abyss in the universe in Greek cosmogony, as far below the Underworld as the earth is below the sky. A place of imprisonment for the Titans and eternal punishment for the greatest wrongdoers, surrounded by three walls of bronze.
A mountain in Thessaly that served as the headquarters of the Titans during the Titanomachy. It was from this peak that the Titans fought Zeus before their defeat and their casting into Tartarus.
Home of the Olympian gods and seat of Zeus, from which the victory over the Titans was orchestrated and their imprisonment in Tartarus decreed. It embodies the new cosmic order established in opposition to the abyssal depths.
The volcano in Sicily beneath which the Greeks sometimes placed the imprisonment of Typhon, son of Tartarus and Gaia. Its eruptions were interpreted as the rage of the monster chained under the mountain by Zeus.
Typical Objects
Hesiod describes the entrances to Tartarus as sealed by thick bronze gates. These gates symbolize the impassable barrier between the world of the living and the primordial abyss, preventing the Titans from ever escaping.
To illustrate the dizzying depth of Tartarus, Hesiod uses the metaphor of a brazen anvil that, dropped from the sky, would take nine days to reach the earth, and nine more days to reach the bottom of the abyss.
The defeated Titans are bound in Tartarus with adamantine fetters, a legendary indestructible metal. These divine chains ensure that no prisoner can ever escape and disturb the cosmic order once more.
The boulder that Sisyphus is condemned to roll forever up a hill, only to watch it roll back down each time, is one of the most famous symbols of Tartarus's punishments. It represents an endless and absurd toil.
Ixion, guilty of attempting to seduce Hera, is condemned to spin for eternity on a flaming wheel in Tartarus. This instrument of torture symbolizes divine justice against hubris and the betrayal of one's hosts.
Tartarus is enveloped in an absolute and permanent night that ancient texts describe as impenetrable. This total darkness symbolizes a radical separation from the divine world and from light — beyond even the ordinary shadows of the Underworld.
School Curriculum
Vocabulary & Tags
Key Vocabulary
Daily Life
Morning
As a primordial power and cosmic place, Tartarus has no daily life in the human sense. At the 'morning' of the universe, Tartarus already existed as a dark and silent abyss, while the other primordial entities — Gaia, Eros, Night — were beginning to shape the cosmos. It is the immutable foundation of the world, present even before the sun existed.
Afternoon
The 'day' of Tartarus is that of the Titanomachy: for ten years, cosmic battles shook the universe above it, until Zeus hurled the defeated Titans into its depths. Tartarus then received its divine prisoners, holding them chained in its depths, guarded by the Hecatoncheires with their hundred arms and fifty heads.
Evening
In the Greek imagination, Tartarus is a permanent night, without dawn or dusk. Its 'eternal evening' is filled with the groans of chained Titans and the endless torments of condemned souls. It is a darkness that even the gods dread to fathom — deeper than any known night.
Food
As a primordial power and cosmic place, Tartarus does not feed itself the way mortals do. In mythological imagination, it absorbs for eternity the souls of the gravest sinners and the defeated titanic forces. No food offering or libation is addressed to it: it is too deep and too terrible to be approached through ordinary ritual.
Clothing
Tartarus is not portrayed in anthropomorphic form in the oldest Greek texts: it is an abstract cosmic power, not a deity depicted like Zeus or Poseidon. When artists later attempted to personify it, they imagined it shrouded in black mists and darkness, its very being merging with the absolute obscurity of the abyss.
Housing
Tartarus is itself its own dwelling: an unfathomable abyss surrounded by three bronze walls and sealed by bronze gates forged by Poseidon, according to Hesiod. It lies as far beneath the Underworld of Hades as the sky of Ouranos is high above the earth, in a thick and eternal night.
Historical Timeline
Period Vocabulary
Liens externes & ressources
Références
Œuvres
Génération de Typhon
Temps primordial (mythe)
Rôle de prison cosmique pour les Titans
Après la Titanomachie (mythe)
Lieu de justice divine pour les mortels
Tradition mythologique grecque classique
Modèle pour la notion d'Enfer dans la culture occidentale
IVe-Ve siècle apr. J.-C.
