Who is tartarus

Some Greek ancient ideologies like Hyginus argue that Tartarus was the offspring formed from the union between Aether and Gaia, which contradicts other arguments. Echidna was created as half woman and half snake. Typhoeus also came from the union of Tartarus and Gaia. Typhoeus was the Father of All Monsters and was believed to have fire-flashing eyes and a winged body.

The lower part of his body was made of enormous viper coils that would stretch to the top of his head and produce a hissing sound. When Typhoeus and Echidna united, they produced some of the most fierce monsters of the underworld. Tartarus was responsible for carrying the souls of sinners from earth to hell. The hell was depicted as a pit where these souls would be punished for eternity. The Greeks believed that Tartarus represented a dark place in the underworld where souls of the dead could not escape.

Based on the Greek ancient sources, information of Tartarus as a god is limited since most people considered the term to represent a hell-pit.

According to Greek ideologists, if you had a bronze anvil dropped from earth, it would take it approximately 9 days to reach Tartarus. Sovereign deities like Ouranos used Tartarus as a place to incarcerate those who plotted against them, including their children. Each of these prisoners is associated with atrocious acts that attracted varying levels of punishment in Tartarus. According to the oldest Greek mythologies, Tartarus was also used as a place to confine any being that posed a threat to the gods of Olympus.

Rhadamanthus, Aeacus, and Minos were said to be the judges who identified the souls that would be sent to Tartarus. Rhadamanthus was the judge for Asian souls, Aeacus the judge of European souls, and Minos the Greek judge. With time, however, Hades came to overthrow Tartarus as the ruler of the underworld hell-pit. Nonetheless, Tartarus continued to exist.

It is from Tartarus that the Light and the cosmos came into existence. If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content. Home » Tartarus. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. Read more on our privacy policy here.

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In the Greek poet Hesiod's Theogony, Tartarus was the third of the primordial deities, following after Chaos and Gaia Earth , and preceding Eros and was the father, by Gaia, of his only son, the monstrous giant Typhon.

According to Hyginus, Tartarus was the offspring of Aether and Gaia. As for the place, Hesiod asserts that a bronze anvil falling from heaven would fall nine days before it reached the earth.

The anvil would take nine more days to fall from earth to Tartarus. In The Iliad , Zeus asserts that Tartarus is "as far beneath Hades as heaven is high above the earth. While according to Greek mythology the realm of Hades is the place of the dead, Tartarus also has a number of inhabitants. When Kronos came to power as the King of the Titans, he imprisoned the one-eyed Cyclopes and the hundred-armed Hecatonchires in Tartarus and set the monster Campe as its guard.

Zeus killed Campe and released these imprisoned giants to aid in his conflict with the Titans. The gods of Olympus eventually triumphed. Cronus and many of the other Titans were banished to Tartarus, though Prometheus , Epimetheus , Metis and most of the female Titans were spared. And in some accounts, Cronus somehow later earned Zeus' forgiveness and was released from Tartarus to become ruler of Elysium. Another Titan, Atlas , was sentenced to hold the sky on his shoulders to prevent it from resuming its primordial embrace with the Earth.

Other gods could be sentenced to Tartarus as well. Apollo is a prime example, although Zeus freed him. The Hecatonchires became guards of Tartarus' prisoners. Later, when Zeus overcame the monster Typhon, he threw him into "wide Tartarus". Originally, Tartarus was used only to confine dangers to the gods of Olympus.

In later mythologies, Tartarus became the place where the punishment fits the crime. The rivers of the Underworld also ran through Tartarus, these rivers were:. The Underworld is considered to be a dark and gloomy counterpart to the bright and happy Mount Olympus. As to also which, Mount Olympus is the realm of the gods whereas the Underworld is the realm of the dead. Ixion ,the king of Lapiths resided on Mount Olympus for a short time before he fell lustful for Zeus ' wife, Hera , so Zeus banished him to Tartarus, which is down in the underworld and he was bind to a winged fiery wheel by Hermes that was always spinning.

Tartarus has been in plenty of movies in our generation Greek Myth Wikia Explore. Greek Mythology.