Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

After the Titans are cast down, Hesiod pauses to measure Tartarus. It is as far beneath the earth as heaven is above: an anvil falling nine days and nights from heaven would reach earth on the tenth; likewise from earth to Tartarus. A bronze fence runs around it; about its neck Night pours in three rows; above grow the roots of earth and barren sea. There the Titan gods are hidden in misty gloom by the will of Zeus, in a moldy place at the ends of huge earth. They cannot go out: Poseidon set gates of bronze, and a wall runs around on every side. There Gyges, Cottus, and Briareus (the Hundred-Handers) dwell as trusted guards of Zeus. There also stand the sources and ends of earth, Tartarus, sea, and starry heaven—a great chasm; one would not reach the floor in a year if once inside the gates. There too, in front, the echoing halls of Night’s son Sleep and of Death, whom dread Night bore. Sleep roams the earth and sea gently; Death has an iron heart and holds whoever he once seizes. There the resounding halls of strong Hades and dread Persephone stand; a fearful dog (Cerberus) guards in front, fawning on those who enter and devouring those who try to leave. There dwells the goddess Styx, eldest daughter of Ocean, apart in a glorious house roofed with long rocks; Iris comes rarely to fetch the great oath of the gods from that cold water that pours down from a high rock. Atlas, under strong necessity, holds the broad heaven with head and tireless hands at the borders of earth, before the clear-voiced Hesperides. Night and Day approach and greet one another as they cross the bronze threshold: one goes in, the other comes out; never is the house empty of both. Catalogue this as Hesiod’s full Tartarean topography—measures, gates, warders, and neighboring houses—beyond the mere fact of Titan imprisonment.