| Deep in the bowels of the earth lies the prison of Tartarus.
It lies within the dreary Underworld, governed by the dark and gloomy Hades.
Here dwell those evil ones who have died, those who did terrible things during life.
You can compare it to Hell in the modern-day beliefs. Some people who did terrible
things yet were still curable were put in Tartarus for a certain period of time, but those
who were truly evil and incurable were placed in Tartarus for all eternity. Each
inmate of Tartarus had a special punishment assigned to him or her by the three judges of
the Underworld. On this page are two different examples of some of the prisoners of
Tartarus.
Sisphyus - Sisphyus was a man with a big mouth. One day the river god Asopus came looking for his missing daughter Aegina. Sisphyus replied to Asopus by telling him that he knew Zeus had fallen in love with her and carried her away. After Zeus escaped Asopus by changing into a rock, he hurled a thunderbolt at him and broke one of his legs. Zeus asked Hades to take Sisyphus to the Underworld and punish him severely. When Hades came to take him, he asked why Hermes hadn't come for him, as it was his job to take dead souls to the Underworld. Then Sisphyus asked how Hades' handcuffs worked. Sisphyus pretended not to understand and asked Hades to demonstrate. When Hades put the handcuffs on, Sisphyus snapped them shut and chained him in his house. While Hades was chained, no one could die. Finally, the gods threatened to make life so miserable for Sisphyus that he would wish he was dead. So he unchained Hades. Hermes immediately came for him and took him to the Underworld. While Sisphyus was alive, he had asked his wife not to bury him properly and not to place a coin under his tongue. Of course, without a coin, Charon would not ferry dead souls across the River Styx to the Underworld. Persephone, Queen of the Dead, took pity on him and told him to return to the upper world and get his wife to bury him properly. Of course, Sisphyus had planned for this and he stayed in the upper world for many years and lived a happy life. Finally, Hermes came down from Olympus and brought Sisphyus down to the Underworld for good. The judges of the dead decided on an extremely harsh punishment for him. He was forced to roll a rock up a hill. As soon as he got close to the top, the rock rolled back down. Just to make the point clear, the rock was the same shape as the one that Zeus had turned into.
Tantalus - Tantalus was favored greatly by all the gods. He was invited to some of their banquets, and was even told some of their secrets. In order to thank the gods, he invited them to a banquet at his palace in Asia Minor. But he couldn't seem to find something fine enough to serve the gods. So he took his finest possession, his son Pelops, and put him in a stew to serve to the gods. When the gods came to his palace, he set the stew before them. The first one to actually eat the stew was Demeter. She noticed that it was human and immediately told Zeus. Zeus became angry. He immediately restored Pelops to life and put him back together. But part of his shoulder, which Demeter had eaten, was missing, so it was replaced with ivory. The gods gave Pelops a team of magic horses and told him to go win himself a kingdom. He did this, and that's another story. Tantalus, on the other hand, was not so lucky. He was banished to Tartarus when he died, and given an especially harsh punishment. He was allowed to become extremely hungry and thirsty, then condemned forever to stand neck deep in a pool of water. There were branches above him from a tree bearing lucious fruits, but whenever he tried to pick one, the branches blew away. Whenever he tried to cup his hands and drink some water, the water level of the pool receded.
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