Aidonian's blog

Tartaros is a very obscure Protogenos, a Primordial God that arose from Khaos during the very beginning of the universe. is one of the most ancient and mysterious beings in Greek cosmology. He is both a God and a cosmic place, the opposite of Ouranos. He, like Ouranos is part of the very fabric of the universe. Unlike Ouranos, He isn’t the progenitor of any Gods except for Typhon, the monster that almost defeated Zeus. Gaia had created Typhon from her merger with Tartaros and when He was fully grown, send Him after the Olympians who fled to Egypt when seeing the monster that Gaia had send after Them. Tartaros isn’t just the father of Typhon, but also of the Gigantes, Giants that Gaia had send after the Olympians, who had defeated them with the help of Herakles and Dionysos.

Hesiod wrote about Him in his Theogony: “Verily at first Khaos (the Chasm) [Air] came to be, but next wide-bosomed Gaia (Gaea, Earth), the ever-sure foundation of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympos, and dim Tartaros (Tartarus, the Pit) in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love).”

“But when Zeus had driven the Titanes (Titans) from heaven, huge Gaia (Gaea, Earth) bare her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartaros (Tartarus), by the aid of golden Aphrodite.”
Only Hyginus wrote that either Ouranos or Aither is the father of Tartaros along with Gaia, while Hesiod mentions that He is a Protogenos who came forth from Khaos. After Zeus defeated Typhon, He threw Him into Tartaros which served as a cosmic prison where the Titans & Gigantes are also located as other threats to the Gods. Hesiod mentions that Tartaros is a very deep cosmic place, so deep that when an anvil fell towards it, it would need 9 days to reach it.

Like all Protogenoi, Tartaros had no cults or temples in ancient Greece. If He was worshipped at all, it would have been privately. Worship of Tartaros would have nothing to do with evil. While Hellenic theology does acknowledge evil beings, there were no evil Gods. Tartaros like other Protogenoi is a cosmic force, one that guards cosmic threats to the Gods. He is honoured, but not activly worshipped. Those who lean towards mysticism and philosophy can perhaps go to Tartaros for introspection,coming to sense to the real you.