Tartarus
The lowest region of the underworld, where evildoers were imprisoned.
The Creation of Tartarus
According to Greek Creation Myths, Hades is the region under the Earth where the spirits of the dead reside, and Tartarus is the lowest region within Hades. It is as far below earth as earth is from heaven. According to the Greek poet Hesiod, a bronze anvil dropped from heaven would take nine days and nine nights to fall to earth, and a further nine days and nine nights to reach Tartarus.Created out of Chaos – a great empty void – Tartarus was formed at the birth of the universe, along with Gaia (Earth), Uranus (Sky) and Eros (Desire).
The region is described as a dank, gloomy pit, surrounded by high bronze walls and encircled by a river of fire, called Phlegethon.
Tartarus the prison
In early stories, Tartarus served as a prison for defeated gods. It is where Uranus imprisoned his children, the one-eyed Cyclopes and the fifty-headed Hecatoncheires. When the Titans were condemned to Tartarus after losing their battle against the Olympian gods the bronze gates were guarded by the Hecatoncheires.
Any god who swore a false oath by the River Styx would be imprisoned for nine years in Tartarus.In later Greek and Roman stories, Tartarus – like the Christian hell – was the place where the most wicked souls were punished for their sins. Sisyphus, Tantalus and Ixion were amongst those imprisoned there.Tartarus was contrasted with Elysium – the place where the blessed spent their afterlives.