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In Greek mythology, Tartarus, or Tartaros, is both a deity and a place in the underworld - even lower than Hades. In ancient orphic sources and in the mystery schools Tartaros is also the unbounded first-existing "thing" from which the Light and the cosmos is born.

The Greek poet Hesiod asserts that a bronze anvil falling from heaven would fall 9 days before it reached the Earth. The anvil would take 9 more days to fall from Earth to Tartarus. As a place so far from the sun and so deep in the earth, Tartarus is hemmed in by 3 layers of night, which surrounds a bronze wall which in turn encompasses Tartarus. It is a dank and wretched pit engulfed in murky gloom. It is one of the primordial objects, along with Chaos, Earth, and Eros, that emerged into the universe.

While, according to Greek mythology, Hades is the place of the dead, Tartarus also has a number of inhabitants. When Cronus, the ruling Titan, came to power he imprisoned the Cyclopes in Tartarus. Zeus released them to aid in his conflict with the Titan giants. The gods of OlympusOlympus can refer to: Home of the gods in Greek mythology: see Mount Olympus Japanese optics company: see Olympus company An extinct volcano on Mars and the largest known mountain in the solar system: see Olympus Mons Loose confederation of individuals in eventually defeated them and they were cast into Tartarus. They were guarded by giants, each with 50 enormous heads and 100 strong arms, who were called HecatonchiresThe hecatonchires or hecatoncheires ("the hundred-handed") were figures of Greek mythology, giants with a hundred arms and fifty heads. They were children of Gaia and Uranus. Their father threw them into Tartarus, but they were rescued by Cronus and helpe. Later, when Zeus overcame the monster Typhus, the offspring of Tartarus and GaiaGaia ("land" or "earth", also spelled Ge or Gaea in Greek mythology embodies the fertility of the Earth. Some people believe that Gaia is a later form of a pre-Indo-European Great Mother who was venerated in Neolithic times, but this theory is not widely, he threw it, too, into the same pit.

Tartarus is also the place where the punishment fits the crime. For example SisyphusSisyphus (also Sisyphos or Sisuphos , in Greek mythology, was the son of Aeolus and Enarete, husband of Merope, and King/Founder of Ephyra ( Corinth). According to some (later) sources, he was the father of Odysseus by Anticlea, before she married her lat, who was both a thief and murderer, was condemned for eternity to push a boulder up a hill only to have it roll down at the top. Also found there was IxionThis article is about the Greek myth. For the trans-Neptunian object, see 28978 Ixion In Greek mythology, Ixion was one of the Lapiths, a king of Thessaly, and a son of Phlegyas. Pirithous was his son. He married Dia, a daughter of Deioneus and promised h, the first human to spill the blood of a relative. He caused his father in-law to fall into a pit of burning coals to avoid paying the bride-price. The fitting punishment was to spend eternityEternal links here. For the British pop band, see Eternal (band). While in the popular mind, eternal often simply means existing for an infinite, i. limitless, amount of time, many have used it to refer to a timeless existence altogether outside of time . on a flaming wheel. TantalusThis article is about Tantalus from Greek mythology. For the peak on the Hawaiian island of O‘ahu, see Tantalus (Oahu). Tantalus also Tantalos in Greek mythology was a son of Zeus and the nymph Plouto (not to be confused with the Roman name for Hades)., who enjoyed the confidence of the gods by conversing and dining with them, shared the food and the secrets of the gods with his friends. The fitting punishment was to be immersed up to his neck in cool water, which disappeared whenever he attempted to quench his thirst, and luscious grapes above him that leapt up when he tried to take a hold.

In Roman mythology, Tartarus is the place where sinners are sent. Virgil describes it in the Aeneid as a gigantic place, surrounded by the flaming river Phlegethon and triple walls to avoid sinners escaping from it. It is guarded by a hydra with fifty black gaping jaws, which sits at a screeching gate protected by columns of solid adamant, a substance akin to diamond - so hard that nothing will cut through it. Inside, there is a castle with wide walls, and a tall iron turret. Tisiphone, one of the Furies who represents revenge, stands guard sleepless at the top of this turret lashing a whip. There is a pit inside which is said to extend down into the earth twice as far as the distance from the lands of the living to Olympus. At the bottom of this pit lie the Titans, the twin sons of Aloeus and many other sinners. Still more sinners are contained inside Tartarus, with punishments similar to those of Greek myth.

The author of Peter's First Epistle alludes to this tradition, naming Tartaros (ταρταροω) as the judgement of fallen angels (2 Peter 2:4; see Hell).

Tartarus is also the name of brute chieften in Halo 2.