Τάρταρος

Forms

Τάρτᾰρος (Tártaros) m (genitive Ταρτᾰ́ρου); second declension^[1] Pindar also uses it as a feminine, and the neuter plural Τάρταρα is common.^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[4][3] Frisk and Beekes call it an unexplained foreign word and reject the attempts to explain it as arbitrary.^[4][3] Chantraine and Πάπυρος think it probably an Eastern loanword.^[5][6] The CGL also calls it a loanword, unless it is related to Ancient Greek ταράσσω (tarássō, “to stir up, trouble”).^[2] Bailly saw an onomatopoeia meant to suggest something frightful, comparing βάρβαρος (bárbaros).^[7]

Ancient writers derived it from this verb too: the Etymologicum Magnum explains it as the darkest place, where everything is thrown into confusion.^[8] Strabo reports a belief that Homer made the name up from Tartessus, Ταρτησσός (Tartēssós), in the far west beyond the Pillars of Heracles, where the sun sinks.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad Tartarus is the deep and misty gulf where the Titans are confined.^[9][10] Zeus threatens to hurl any disobedient god into it, a place as far below Hades as heaven is above the earth, with a bronze wall and iron gates.^[11][9]

Semantic evolution

In Hesiod's Theogony Tartarus is also one of the first beings, and by Gaia the father of Typhon; it is the prison of the defeated Titans, below the roots of earth and sea.^[2][11] Theognis and Anacreon treat it as the deepest and most dreadful part of Hades, and Sophocles makes it the father of Death.^[11][2] Plato describes it in the Phaedo as a chasm into which the rivers of the underworld flow, and in the Gorgias as the place where wrongdoers are punished, the counterpart of Elysium.^[11][12] Later it came to mean the mythical underworld in general.^[2]

The derived verb ταρταρόω (tartaróō) “to cast into Tartarus” occurs in the New Testament.^[13][3] The Suda defines Tartarus as the lower region of Hades, but adds that some call the region around the clouds by this name.^[14][12] Latin took the word as Latin Tartarus, and Vergil gives it a triple wall surrounded by the river Phlegethon.^[11] English has Tartarus from about 1500, through Latin.^[15] Modern Greek Τάρταρος (Tártaros) is the mythical abyss in Hades, and by extension the underworld itself.^[16]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad names it as the deep, misty gulf where the Titans are confined.^[9][11]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony makes it one of the primeval beings and the father of Typhon.^[2][17][18]
• 6th century BC – Theognis and Anacreon treat it as the lowest and most dreadful part of Hades.^[11][18]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it as a feminine noun.^[2][18]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles calls Tartarus the father of Death.^[2][18]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato makes it the place where wrongdoers are punished.^[11][18]
• About 1500 – English adopts Tartarus from Latin.^[15]
• Modern Greek – It names the mythical abyss of Hades and, by extension, the underworld.^[16]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. Tartarus, the deep abyss beneath the earth, lower than Hades, where the Titans were imprisoned.^[2][9][19]
2. Tartarus personified, one of the primeval beings, father of Typhon by Gaia.^[2]
3. The underworld in general.^[2][20]
4. (rare) The region around the clouds.^[14][8]

Word family

• ταρταροῦχος (tartaroûkhos)
• ταρταρόω (tartaróō)
• ταρταρίζω (tartarízō)

Related words

• Latin Tartarus
• English Tartarus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
6. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
7. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
8. ^ a b Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
10. ^ Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, tr. Robert P. Keep, New York: Harper and Brothers
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
12. ^ a b Suda On Line: Byzantine Lexicography, ed. David Whitehead et al., Stoa Consortium, https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/
13. ^ Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
14. ^ a b Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
15. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ a b Πολυλεξικό, in the encyclopedia Επιστήμη και Ζωή, Athens
17. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
18. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
19. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
20. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli