Tartarus

Tartarus is the deepest region of the Underworld in Greek mythology, a dark abyss used as a dungeon for the wicked and a prison for the defeated Titans.

By Mythographia Editorial Team Reviewed by Mythographia Editorial Team Updated 2026-09-05

In Practice

It is described as being as far below Hades as the earth is below the sky. Famous prisoners include Kronos and the Titans after the Titanomachy, Tantalus, Sisyphus, and Ixion, each suffering a punishment tailored to their transgressions. Hesiod names Tartarus twice over, as a place and as a being. In the opening lines of the Theogony he lists Tartarus alongside Chaos, Gaia, and Eros as one of the first four things to come into existence, before any god is born - which makes Tartarus, in this sense, a primordial entity rather than merely a location built or designated later. Elsewhere in the same poem, Gaia and Tartarus together father the monster Typhon, treating Tartarus as an active, personified figure capable of parentage rather than only an abyss. Most of the poem, and nearly all later tradition, uses Tartarus in the more familiar sense: a specific, physical place with a measurable location. Hesiod is precise about that location in a way few other Greek geographic myths bother to be: a bronze anvil dropped from the sky would fall nine days and nights before reaching the earth, and dropped from the earth's surface would fall another nine days and nights before reaching Tartarus, which puts it exactly as far beneath the world of the living as the sky is above it. Bronze walls and gates, forged by Poseidon, seal it off, and Night's dwelling stands at its threshold, marking it as one of the outer limits of the ordered cosmos rather than simply a lower floor of Hades' kingdom. Homer independently gives the same measurement from the other direction: in the Iliad, Zeus threatens to hurl any disobedient god down to murky Tartarus, describing it as lying as far beneath Hades as the sky lies above the earth, with gates of iron and a threshold of bronze - a description close enough to Hesiod's that the two poets are clearly drawing on a shared, well-established cosmic geography rather than inventing the depth independently.

How far below the earth is Tartarus?

Hesiod measures it precisely: a bronze anvil falling from the sky would take nine days and nights to reach the earth, and falling from the earth's surface it would take another nine days and nights to reach Tartarus. That places Tartarus exactly as far beneath the world as the sky is above it, one of the few specific measurements given for any location in Greek cosmology.

Hesiod, Theogony 720-725

Is Tartarus a place or a god?

Both, in Hesiod. The Theogony opens by naming Tartarus as one of the first four things to exist, alongside Chaos, Gaia, and Eros, treating it as a primordial being rather than only a location. Later in the same poem, Tartarus and Gaia together father the monster Typhon, which only makes sense if Tartarus is understood as an active, personified figure. Nearly everywhere else, including in most later Greek and Roman literature, Tartarus functions simply as a place.

Hesiod, Theogony 116-119

Who is imprisoned in Tartarus?

Kronos and the other defeated Titans after the Titanomachy are the most famous prisoners, held behind bronze gates forged by the Cyclopes at Poseidon's command. Later tradition adds a set of individual human sinners condemned to specific, endless punishments there - Tantalus, Sisyphus, and Ixion among them - extending Tartarus from a prison for defeated gods into a place of punishment for mortal wrongdoing as well.

Hesiod, Theogony 717-735

What is the difference between Tartarus and Hades?

Hades, in the older and stricter sense, is the general realm of the dead where ordinary souls go regardless of how they lived; Tartarus is a specific, much deeper region reserved for the defeated Titans and for the worst offenders among mortals, set apart by both its extreme depth and its function as a place of confinement and punishment rather than a neutral afterlife.

Hesiod, Theogony 721-725

Who guards the gates of Tartarus?

Hesiod describes bronze gates and a bronze wall built around Tartarus, forged at Poseidon's direction, sealing the Titans inside. The hundred-handed giants, the Hecatoncheires, are set to stand guard at the gates once the Titans are imprisoned, having fought on the Olympian side in the Titanomachy and been rewarded with this position of trust.

Hesiod, Theogony 734-745

Where Accounts Differ

place or primordial being

Hesiod treats Tartarus both as a primordial being present at the origin of the cosmos (father of Typhon with Gaia) and as a physical place; almost all later tradition drops the personified sense and uses Tartarus purely as a location.