Who Is Tartarus (Tartaros)?
The deep darkness beneath the earth
Tartarus is a misty, dark place in the deepest depths of the earth in Greek mythology, and also the primordial god who is that place. In the Theogony, he comes into being after Chaos and Gaia.
According to the Theogony, it is so deep that a bronze anvil dropped from the sky would fall for nine days and nine nights and reach the earth on the tenth, and dropped from the earth it would fall another nine days and nine nights to reach Tartarus. The Titans, defeated in the Titanomachy, were imprisoned here, with the Hundred-Handers as their guards.
In later times it came to be described as the deepest part of the underworld, where those who committed grave crimes are punished.
Episodes featuring this character2
NEWEpisode 1
The Universe Began with a CrackChaos and the Creation (Theogony)
On fog-wrapped Mount Helicon, Hesiod, a starving shepherd, gets roasted by the sharp-tongued Muses, then handed a laurel staff and a divine voice. A single "Gap" opens in the white void. Darkness and Night are born, then the light Hesiod's own song calls up, then Earth and the starry Sky. Twelve children stir deep inside Earth, and only the youngest glares through the ceiling at his father with golden eyes.
20 pages
NEWEpisode 9
The Day Zeus Stopped Holding BackTitanomachy
Cronus feared his children would take his throne. Zeus, the youngest, was the only one who escaped him, and he has fought his father for ten years. This is the war's last day. Zeus finally stops holding back and hurls lightning hot enough to set the world on fire. The three Hundred-Handers bury the sky under three hundred boulders. Together they drive the old gods down into Tartarus, which lies as far below the earth as heaven lies above it.
19 pages