The prisoners of Tartaros

Some random mythology today! In early Hellenic cosmogony Tartaros was the great pit beneath the earth. The cosmos was imagined as a great sphere or void, with the upper half of its shell formed by the dome of heaven, and the lower half by the pit of Tartaros. Inside, this cosmic sphere was divided in two by the flat disc of earth. Above was the dwelling place of gods and men, and below was the gloomy, storm-wracked prison of the Titanes. Haides, the realm of the dead, was originally quite distinct from the pit of Tartaros. It was located either at the very ends of the earth, beyond the river Okeanos and the setting of the sun; or in the hollow depths of earth's belly. Tartaros on the other hand, lay as far beneath Haides as the sky lay above the earth. Tartaros was secured with a surrounding wall of bronze set with a pair of gates, guarded by the hundred-handed Hekatonkheir giants, warders of the Titanes.

Later classical writers reimagined Tartaros as the hellish prison-house of the damned. Plato, in 'Gorgias' describes the then-modern views on Tartaros:

"Now in the time of Kronos there was a law concerning mankind, and it holds to this very day amongst the gods, that every man who has passed a just and holy life departs after his decease to the Isles of the Blest (Nesoi Makaron), and dwells in all happiness apart from ill; but whoever has lived unjustly and impiously goes to the dungeon of requital and penance which, you know, they call Tartaros." [523a]

Throughout Hellenic mythology, quite a few people were locked away in Tartaros and for no reason at all, I felt the need to collect some of these today, along with their cautionary tales.

King Sísyphos

Sísyphos (Σίσυφος) was a king; the king of Ephyra, the area now known as Corinth to be exact. For those who enjoy figuring out the convolutd family trees of the ancient kings, he was the son of King Aeolus of Thessaly and Enarete, and the father of Glaucus, Ornytion, Almus, and Thersander by the nymph Merope, the brother of Salmoneus, and the grandfather of Bellerophon through Glaucus. He was a very bright man, with a good mind for ruling. Unfortunately, he was also a proud man, and a deceitful one at that. He ruled his city with an iron fist, and killed visitors, breaking xenia and raising the ire of Zeus Xenios.

Sísyphos is not generally known for his deeds in life; he is far better known for his deeds in death. According to Hellenic mythology, Sísyphos is condemned to roll a rock up to the top of a mountain in Tartaros, only to have the rock roll back down to the bottom every time he reaches the top. The Gods, it seems, are well aware that working a dead end job without pay-off is one of the worst things that can happen to a person. There are various stories about Sísyphos and how he earned this fate. Apollodorus, in his Library, writes the following:

"Sisyphus is punished in Hades by rolling a stone with his hands and head in the effort to heave it over the top; but push it as he will, it rebounds backward. This punishment he endures for the sake of Aegina, daughter of Asopus; for when Zeus had secretly carried her off, Sisyphus is said to have betrayed the secret to Asopus, who was looking for her." [1.9.3]

According to Pherecydes (Frag. 78 in Müller, Fragmenta Historicum Graecorum, i. p. 91) Sísyphos told Asopus that Zeus had carried off his daughter Aegina, but continues to say that Zeus punished him by sending Death after him. Cunning as he was, Sísyphos managed to trick Death and bound him, so that men ceased to die, until Ares came to the rescue, released Death, and gave Sísyphos to Him. Before he died, however, Sísyphos told his wife Merope to omit his funeral rites, so that Hades, being deprived of his customary offerings, would be persuadable to let him go back to life in order to complain of his wife’s neglect. Hades did, indeed, let him go to deal with his wife, but when he refused to return, and had to be fetched back by Hermes, his well-known punishment ensued.

King Tántalos

This king cut up his son Pelops, boiled him, and served him as food when he was invited to dine with the Gods. He also stole the ambrosia from the Gods and told his people its secrets. Another story mentioned that he held onto a golden dog forged by Hephaestus and stolen by Tántalos' friend Pandareus. Tantalus (Τάνταλος) held onto the golden dog for safekeeping and later denied to Pandareus that he had it. Tántalos' punishment for his actions was to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches raised his intended meal from his grasp. Whenever he bent down to get a drink, the water receded before he could get any. Over his head towered a threatening stone like that of Sisyphus. From the 'Odysseia':

"I [Odysseus] saw Tantalus in agonising torment, in a pool of water reaching to his chin. He was tortured by thirst, but could not drink, since every time he stooped eagerly the water was swallowed up and vanished, and at his feet only black earth remained, parched by some god. Fruit hung from the boughs of tall leafy trees, pears and pomegranates, juicy apples, sweet figs and ripe olives. But whenever the old man reached towards them to grasp them in his hands, the wind would sweep them off into the shadowy clouds." [Bk XI:541-592]

Ixion

Ixion (Ἰξίων), king of the Lapiths (Λαπίθαι), fell in love with Hera after being invited up to Olympos by Zeus. Zeus decided to test his integrity after He discovered His guest' lust for Hera. Zeus created the cloud nymph Nephele (Νεφέλη)in Hera's image. Ixion made love to her and fathered the Kentaurs (or just one, Kentaurus, who became the father of the Centaur race). Needless to say, Ixion failed miserably. He was expelled from Olympus and blasted with a thunderbolt. Zeus then ordered Hermes to bind Ixion to a winged fiery wheel that was always spinning. Therefore, Ixion is bound to a burning solar wheel for all eternity, at first spinning across the heavens, then into Tartaros. The Corona Australis is this very wheel, with Ixion tied to it. Apollodorus, in his 'Bibliotheca': 

"Ixion fell in love with Hera and tried to rape her, and when Hera told Zeus about it, Zeus wanted to determine if her report was really true. So he fashioned a Cloud (Nephele) to look like Hera, and laid it by Ixion's side. When Ixion bragged that he had slept with Hera, Zeus punished him by tying him to a wheel, on which he was turned by winds up in the air. The Cloud (Nephele) bore Kentauros (Centaurus) from Ixion’s seed." [E.1.20]

The Danaides

It is said that these fifty daughters of Danaus (or just forty-nine, or forty-eight, or forty-seven of them) murdered their husbands and were punished in Tartarus by being forced to carry water in a jug to fill a bath which would thereby wash off their sins, but the jugs were actually sieves so the water always leaked out. Ovid in his 'Metamorphoses' poetically describes their fate:

"The Belides their leaky vessels still

Are ever filling, and yet never fill:

Doom'd to this punishment for blood they shed,

For bridegrooms slaughter'd in the bridal bed."

King Salmoneus

This king may have banked himself a place in Tartaros by trying to pass himself off as Zeus, causing the real Zeus to smite him with a thunderbolt. He impersonated the divinity by driving around in a chariot dragging bronze kettles to make thunder, and casting torches in the air for lightning. Salmoneus was the great-grandson of Deukalion, survivor of the Great Deluge. Virgil, in his 'Aeneid':

"Salmoneus, suff'ring cruel pains, I found, For emulating Jove; the rattling sound Of mimic thunder, and the glitt'ring blaze Of pointed lightnings, and their forky rays. Thro' Elis and the Grecian towns he flew; Th' audacious wretch four fiery coursers drew: He wav'd a torch aloft, and, madly vain, Sought godlike worship from a servile train. Ambitious fool! with horny hoofs to pass O'er hollow arches of resounding brass, To rival thunder in its rapid course, And imitate inimitable force! But he, the King of Heav'n, obscure on high, Bar'd his red arm, and, launching from the sky His writhen bolt, not shaking empty smoke, Down to the deep abyss the flaming felon strook." [6..585]

• Saturday, February 9, 2019
  ancient Hellenic culture Centaurs Centaurus Hómēros Ixion Mythology 101 Odysseia Ovid Plato Sísyphos Tántalos Tartaros Virgil Zeus

Prisoners of Tartaros

In early Hellenic cosmogony Tartaros was the great pit beneath the earth. The cosmos was imagined as a great sphere or void, with the upper half of its shell formed by the dome of heaven, and the lower half by the pit of Tartaros. Inside, this cosmic sphere was divided in two by the flat disc of earth. Above was the dwelling place of gods and men, and below was the gloomy, storm-wracked prison of the Titanes. Haides, the realm of the dead, was originally quite distinct from the pit of Tartaros. It was located either at the very ends of the earth, beyond the river Okeanos and the setting of the sun; or in the hollow depths of earth's belly. Tartaros on the other hand, lay as far beneath Haides as the sky lay above the earth. Tartaros was secured with a surrounding wall of bronze set with a pair of gates, guarded by the hundred-handed Hekatonkheir giants, warders of the Titanes.

Later classical writers reimagined Tartaros as the hellish prison-house of the damned. Plato, in 'Gorgias' describes the then-modern views on Tartaros:

"Now in the time of Kronos there was a law concerning mankind, and it holds to this very day amongst the gods, that every man who has passed a just and holy life departs after his decease to the Isles of the Blest (Nesoi Makaron), and dwells in all happiness apart from ill; but whoever has lived unjustly and impiously goes to the dungeon of requital and penance which, you know, they call Tartaros." [523a]

Throughout Hellenic mythology, quite a few people were locked away in Tartaros and for no reason at all, I felt the need to collect some of these today, along with their cautionary tales.


King Sísyphos
Sísyphos (Σίσυφος) was a king; the king of Ephyra, the area now known as Corinth to be exact. For those who enjoy figuring out the convolutd family trees of the ancient kings, he was the son of King Aeolus of Thessaly and Enarete, and the father of Glaucus, Ornytion, Almus, and Thersander by the nymph Merope, the brother of Salmoneus, and the grandfather of Bellerophon through Glaucus. He was a very bright man, with a good mind for ruling. Unfortunately, he was also a proud man, and a deceitful one at that. He ruled his city with an iron fist, and killed visitors, breaking xenia and raising the ire of Zeus Xenios.

Sísyphos is not generally known for his deeds in life; he is far better known for his deeds in death. According to Hellenic mythology, Sísyphos is condemned to roll a rock up to the top of a mountain in Tartaros, only to have the rock roll back down to the bottom every time he reaches the top. The Gods, it seems, are well aware that working a dead end job without pay-off is one of the worst things that can happen to a person. There are various stories about Sísyphos and how he earned this fate. Apollodorus, in his Library, writes the following:

"Sisyphus is punished in Hades by rolling a stone with his hands and head in the effort to heave it over the top; but push it as he will, it rebounds backward. This punishment he endures for the sake of Aegina, daughter of Asopus; for when Zeus had secretly carried her off, Sisyphus is said to have betrayed the secret to Asopus, who was looking for her." [1.9.3]

According to Pherecydes (Frag. 78 in Müller, Fragmenta Historicum Graecorum, i. p. 91) Sísyphos told Asopus that Zeus had carried off his daughter Aegina, but continues to say that Zeus punished him by sending Death after him. Cunning as he was, Sísyphos managed to trick Death and bound him, so that men ceased to die, until Ares came to the rescue, released Death, and gave Sísyphos to Him. Before he died, however, Sísyphos told his wife Merope to omit his funeral rites, so that Hades, being deprived of his customary offerings, would be persuadable to let him go back to life in order to complain of his wife’s neglect. Hades did, indeed, let him go to deal with his wife, but when he refused to return, and had to be fetched back by Hermes, his well-known punishment ensued.

King Tántalos
This king cut up his son Pelops, boiled him, and served him as food when he was invited to dine with the Gods. He also stole the ambrosia from the Gods and told his people its secrets. Another story mentioned that he held onto a golden dog forged by Hephaestus and stolen by Tántalos' friend Pandareus. Tantalus (Τάνταλος) held onto the golden dog for safekeeping and later denied to Pandareus that he had it. Tántalos' punishment for his actions was to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches raised his intended meal from his grasp. Whenever he bent down to get a drink, the water receded before he could get any. Over his head towered a threatening stone like that of Sisyphus. From the 'Odysseia':

"I [Odysseus] saw Tantalus in agonising torment, in a pool of water reaching to his chin. He was tortured by thirst, but could not drink, since every time he stooped eagerly the water was swallowed up and vanished, and at his feet only black earth remained, parched by some god. Fruit hung from the boughs of tall leafy trees, pears and pomegranates, juicy apples, sweet figs and ripe olives. But whenever the old man reached towards them to grasp them in his hands, the wind would sweep them off into the shadowy clouds." [Bk XI:541-592]

Ixion
Ixion (Ἰξίων), king of the Lapiths (Λαπίθαι), fell in love with Hera after being invited up to Olympos by Zeus. Zeus decided to test his integrity after He discovered His guest' lust for Hera. Zeus created the cloud nymph Nephele (Νεφέλη)in Hera's image. Ixion made love to her and fathered the Kentaurs (or just one, Kentaurus, who became the father of the Centaur race). Needless to say, Ixion failed miserably. He was expelled from Olympus and blasted with a thunderbolt. Zeus then ordered Hermes to bind Ixion to a winged fiery wheel that was always spinning. Therefore, Ixion is bound to a burning solar wheel for all eternity, at first spinning across the heavens, then into Tartaros. The Corona Australis is this very wheel, with Ixion tied to it. Apollodorus, in his 'Bibliotheca': 

"Ixion fell in love with Hera and tried to rape her, and when Hera told Zeus about it, Zeus wanted to determine if her report was really true. So he fashioned a Cloud (Nephele) to look like Hera, and laid it by Ixion's side. When Ixion bragged that he had slept with Hera, Zeus punished him by tying him to a wheel, on which he was turned by winds up in the air. The Cloud (Nephele) bore Kentauros (Centaurus) from Ixion’s seed." [E.1.20]

The Danaides
It is said that these fifty daughters of Danaus (or just forty-nine, or forty-eight, or forty-seven of them) murdered their husbands and were punished in Tartarus by being forced to carry water in a jug to fill a bath which would thereby wash off their sins, but the jugs were actually sieves so the water always leaked out. Ovid in his 'Metamorphoses' poetically describes their fate:

"The Belides their leaky vessels still
Are ever filling, and yet never fill:
Doom'd to this punishment for blood they shed,
For bridegrooms slaughter'd in the bridal bed."

King Salmoneus
This king may have banked himself a place in Tartaros by trying to pass himself off as Zeus, causing the real Zeus to smite him with a thunderbolt. He impersonated the divinity by driving around in a chariot dragging bronze kettles to make thunder, and casting torches in the air for lightning. Salmoneus was the great-grandson of Deukalion, survivor of the Great Deluge. Virgil, in his 'Aeneid':

"Salmoneus, suff'ring cruel pains, I found, For emulating Jove; the rattling sound Of mimic thunder, and the glitt'ring blaze Of pointed lightnings, and their forky rays. Thro' Elis and the Grecian towns he flew; Th' audacious wretch four fiery coursers drew: He wav'd a torch aloft, and, madly vain, Sought godlike worship from a servile train. Ambitious fool! with horny hoofs to pass O'er hollow arches of resounding brass, To rival thunder in its rapid course, And imitate inimitable force! But he, the King of Heav'n, obscure on high, Bar'd his red arm, and, launching from the sky His writhen bolt, not shaking empty smoke, Down to the deep abyss the flaming felon strook." [6..585]

• Thursday, January 1, 2015
  ancient Hellenic culture Centaurs Centaurus Hómēros Ixion Mythology 101 Odysseia Ovid Plato Sísyphos Tántalos Tartaros Virgil Zeus

PBP: Centaurs, Centaurus, and the Centauromachy

I'm doing a combination post today: I'm combining a Pagan Blog Post, and a constellation series post. As such, I'll be talking about the mythical creatures as well as the constellation named after a few very famous examples of the species. Centaurs (kéntauros, kένταυρος) are depicted as half man, half horse; having the torso of a man extending where the neck of a horse should be. They were said to be wild, savage, and lustful, and in very old Hellenic artwork, they were often depicted as fully human, with a horse's end added to them. This shape for Centaurs remained in art for civilized Centaurs like Kheiron and Phôlus.

There are two stories of the birth of the centaur race: in the first, Ixion (Ἰξίων), king of the Lapiths (Λαπίθαι), and Nephele (Νεφέλη), a cloud nymph Zeus created in the image of Hera to trick Ixion to test his integrity after displaying his lust for Hera during a feast as a guest of Zeus, fathered the Centaurs with the nymph after failing said test. The Lapiths were a mythical, pre-Hellenic tribe whose home was in Thessaly, in the valley of the Peneus and on the mountain Pelion.

Because of the antiquity of the tribe, Ixion's parents are a little hard to determine; sources attest to Ares, Apollon, or Leonteus, or Antion and Perimele. In another version of the myth, Ixion and Nephele had only one son, Centaurus, who was deformed and hunched over. He took to the wilds his father loved, and eventually mated with the mares of a race of horses that lived in Magnesian. From this union came the Centaurs. In all versions of the myth, Ixion was expelled from Olympus and blasted with a thunderbolt for failing his test. Zeus then ordered Hermes to bind Ixion to a winged fiery wheel that was always spinning. Therefore, Ixion is bound to a burning solar wheel for all eternity, at first spinning across the heavens, then into Tartaros. From Pindar's Second Pythian Ode:

"To your benefactor return ever with kind dealing rendered. He learned that lesson well. By favor of the sons of Kronos, he was given a life of delight but could not abide blessedness long; in his delirious heart he loved Hera, dedicated to the high couch of Zeus. That outrage hurled him into conspicuous ruin. He was a man and endured beyond all others distress full merited. Two sins flowered to pain in his life: a hero, he first infected the mortal breed with kindred bloodshed, not with-out treachery; also, in the great secret chambers of Zeus he strove to ravish the Queen. A man should look at himself and learn well his own stature. 

The coupling unnatural brought accumulation of evil on him, even in success; it was a cloud he lay with, and he in his delusion was given the false loveliness. A phantom went in the guise of that highest daughter of Uranian Kronos; a deceit visited upon him by the hands of Zeus, a fair evil thing. Zeus likewise wrought the crucifixion on the wheel, Ixion's bane; and, spinning there, limbs fast to the ineluctable circle, he makes the message a thing that all may know. 

But she, graceless, spawned a child of violence. There was none like her, nor her son; no honor was his portion in the usage of god or man. Nursing him, she named him Kentauros, and he coupled with the Magnesian mares on the spurs of Pelion; and a weird breed was engendered in the favor of either parent: the mare's likeness in the parts below, and the manlike father above. "

The most famous myth concerning the Centaur race is focussed on the tribe of Centaurs, as well as the Lapiths. We call this event the Centauromachy. Scholars say that, like the Titanomancy, the Centauromancy represents a shift from barbarism to civility. The story is as follow, best--and most lengthy--described, I feel, by the Roman poet Ovid, but summarized as follows by Plutarch:

"After this, when Peirithous was about to marry Deidameia, he asked Theseus to come to the wedding, and see the country, and become acquainted with the Iapithae. Now he had invited the Centaurs also to the wedding feast. And when these were flown with insolence and wine, and laid hands upon the women, the Lapithae took vengeance upon them. Some of them they slew upon the spot, the rest they afterwards overcame in war and expelled from the country, Theseus fighting with them at the banquet and in the war. Herodorus, however, says that this was not how it happened, but that the war was already in progress when Theseus came to the aid of the Lapithae and that on his way thither he had his first sight of Heracles, having made it his business to seek him out at Trachis, where the hero was already resting from his wandering and labours; and he says the interview passed with mutual expressions of honor, friendliness, and generous praise."

Note that all Centaurs in the old writings were male. Female Centaurs entered Hellenic writings only as late as (roughly) 190 AD, through the writings of Philostratus of Lemnos. Kentaurides (or Centaurides), the female members of the Kentauroi, were depicted in Hellenic art before that time, though. From Philostratus' Imagine (2.3.):

"You used to think that the race of centaurs sprang from trees and rocks or, by Zeus, just from mares – the mares which, men say, the son of Ixion covered, the man by whom the centaurs though single creatures came to have their double nature. But after all they had, as we see, mothers of the same stock and wives next and colts as their offspring and a most delightful home; for I think you would not grow weary of Pelion and the life there and its wind-nurtured growth of ash which furnishes spear-shafts that are straight and at the same time do not break at the spearhead. And its caves are most beautiful and the springs and the female centaurs beside them, like Naïads if we overlook the horse part of them, or like Amazons if we consider them along with their horse bodies; for the delicacy of their female form gains in strength when the horse is seen in union with it. Of the baby centaurs here some lie wrapped in swaddling clothes, some have discarded their swaddling clothes, some seem to be crying, some are happy and smile as they suck flowing breasts, some gambol beneath their mothers while others embrace them when they kneel down, and one is throwing a stone at his mother, for already he grows wanton. The bodies of the infants have not yet taken on their definite shape, seeing that abundant milk is still their nourishment, but some that already are leaping about show a little shagginess, and have sprouted mane and hoofs, though these are still tender.

How beautiful the female centaurs are, even where they are horses; for some grow out of white mares, others are attached to chestnut mares, and the coat’s of others are dappled, but they glisten like those of horses that are well cared for. There is also a white female centaur that grows out of a black mare, and the very opposition of the colours helps to produce the united beauty of the whole."

It is said that the constellation Centaurus represents Centaurus himself; not because he did something heroic, but because Centaurus was the first person to group stars into constellations and taught others how to read them. The constellation might simply have been Centaurus putting a picture of his children (or, in some versions of the myth--where he is a Centaur--himself) in the sky, possibly to guide the Argonauts on their mission to secure the golden fleece.

There were many famous centaurs in Hellenic mythology, all of whom could be linked to the constellation Centaurus: Kheiron (Chiron, Χείρων), the wise and educated Centaur who taught heroes like Achilles, Theseus, Iásōn, and Hēraklēs, who--although looked like the Centaurs of mount Pelion--was sired much earlier, by Kronos; Pholus, a friend of Hēraklēs, who died of the same poison that led Kheiron to give up his immortality; or Nessus (Νέσσος), the Centaur who carried Hēraklēs' third wife Deïaneira (Δῃάνειρα) over the river Evinos (Εύηνος), and was killed by Hēraklēs for attempting to abduct and rape her. Many of these, however, are linked to the constellation Sagittarius, not Centaurus, and as such, I'll get back to these when I reach this constellation. It seems only Centaurus may rightfully be linked to Centaurus.

The constellation of Centaurus is visible at latitudes between +25° and −90°, and best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of May.

• Friday, February 1, 2013
  astronomy Centauromachy Centaurs Centaurus Constellation series Hēraklēs Hermes Ixion Kronos Pagan Blog Project Phôlos Pindar Ptolemy Tartaros Zeus