Primordial Deity — Tartarus [3rd]

From the “Ancient Greek Mythology Series” – The Foundation of the World

Hello there!

Did you know that the ideas present in Ancient Greece still live and perfectly function nowadays? The amount of similarities that a person can find even from the modern perspective of the world’s origin / operation is tremendously huge.

There are many examples of it: from the Big Bang, deceitful plexus of sly betrayals among Gods that are embodiment of human vices, or vice versa, to Plato’s ideas on the governmental structures in his works such as Republic.

Enough of that, today we will continue the journey, and our next stop is Tartarus, or the ruler of the underworld called, guess what’s called like? Correct — Tartarus.

Music for Inspiration

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Tartarus — Τάρταρος.

“One false step, and you’ll fall all the way to Tartarus—and believe me, unlike the Doors of Death, this would be a one-way trip, a very hard fall!” — Rick Riordan

Have you ever wondered how the deepest, the most secured and forgotten prison looks like? The Greeks believe it looked like a dark, gloomy pit covered with bronze walls on its sides, and storms raging infinitely across it. Lightnings, thunders and furious winds hurling anything that may get in their way. Not the most pleasant place to be in, don’t you agree?

Given the Greeks’ beliefs, that the Earth was a flat disk, and it was kind of “sandwiched” with the Sky and Tartarus, we may suppose that there was an idea about its location? Indeed, we can, and Greeks actually are more than clear in this regard:

According to Hesiod, if a bronze anvil fell down from heaven, it would take it eighteen days before it reached the earth of Tartarus (twice more than to Earth), meaning that it would take nine days to reach the Earth, and nine more days until it would hammer the cold surface of Tartarus.

However, what or who is Tartarus?

The Greeks were not too original in this case as well. His situation is very like Gaia, who, if you remember, was the place [Earth] and a primordial god with a “physical” shape alike to human beings.

Indeed, Tartarus was and still is referred to as the greatest, deepest abyss to which the wicked, evil beings are sent for good. However, in the mythology, he had an ability to travel within His realms, perceive feelings and communicate with other gods. This may be proved with many stories of Tartarus talking to Gaia, spending time with Kronus¹ and many other ones.

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