Tartarus

The Primordial Abyss

Tartarus is a little different from most characters in Greek mythology because it was both an ancient divine power and a place. As a place, Tartarus was a gigantic pit far beneath the Earth. It was even deeper than the normal Underworld where the dead travelled. If Hades was the world below, Tartarus was the place much, much further down. It was dark, distant and almost impossible to escape, which made it a perfect prison for some of the most dangerous beings in mythology.

Hesiod gives a brilliant description of how deep Tartarus was. He says that if a bronze anvil fell from the heavens, it would take nine days and nights to reach Earth. If it kept falling, it would take another nine days and nights to reach Tartarus. That is obviously not a real measurement, but it tells us exactly how the Greeks were supposed to imagine it: ridiculously far away. After Zeus and the Olympians defeated the Titans, many of their enemies were imprisoned there and guarded by the Hundred-Handers.

Tartarus was also treated as a primordial being. With Gaia, it became the parent of Typhon, one of the most terrifying monsters Zeus ever faced. Later stories also connected Tartarus with endless punishments for famous people who had badly offended the gods. It is sometimes confused with Hades, but they are not exactly the same thing. Hades can mean the god of the dead or his Underworld kingdom, while Tartarus is the deepest abyss below. There is no friendly tour guide, no easy staircase back up and definitely no gift shop. I think of it as the maximum-security prison of Greek mythology. When Zeus had an enemy so dangerous that simply defeating them was not enough, Tartarus was a very useful place to keep them.

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