Greek gods - creators
Tartaros
In Greek mythology, Tartaros is a massive abyss with iron walls and gates, created from primordial chaos, or also the god of this abyss. It lies as deep underground as the sky is above it. An iron anvil would fall from the earth's surface to its bottom for nine days and nights. It is three times darker there than the world at night.
Hesiod's poem Theogonia ("On the Origin of the Gods" or also "The Birth of the Gods") describes the origin of Tartarus as follows: "First of all, then, was Chaos, but then the Earth, wide-breasted, that for ever safe abode for all, for the immortals, which the crest of snowy Olympus hosts; in the bowels of the land of broad paths, then the gloomy Tartarus, and then Eros, who of the eternal gods is the most splendid, limbs exempt, and of all gods and men the mind in his breast subdues and the exuberant reason. .."
First, then, was Chaos. Then was born the Earth (Gaia) and in it the Underworld Abyss (Tartarus), and then Love (Eros).
Again, Tartaros himself describes Hesiod's poem Theogonia ("On the Origin of the Gods" or also "The Birth of the Gods") as follows: "And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends of gloomy earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor. It is a great gulf, and if once a man were within the gates, he would not reach the floor until a whole year had reached its end, but cruel blast upon blast would carry him this way and that. And this marvel is awful even to the deathless gods. There stands the awful home of murky Night wrapped in dark clouds. In front of it the son of Iapetus stands immovably upholding the wide heaven upon his head and unwearying hands, where Night and Day draw near and greet one another as they pass the great threshold of bronze: and while the one is about to go down into the house, the other comes out at the door. And the house never holds them both within; but always one is without the house passing over the earth, while the other stays at home and waits until the time for her journeying comes."
The casting down to Tartarus was one of the most terrible punishments. Here Uranos imprisoned Hecantocheira and Cyclops (his sons), who were freed by Zeus. Zeus, in turn, imprisoned the overpowered Titans here, but subsequently released them.
Tartaros fathered the terrible, stalk-headed giant Typhon with Gaia, the mother of the earth, who was to overpower Zeus himself, in retaliation for the suppression of the Titans. Zeus also punished him by casting him into Tartarus and leaving him there forever.
In addition to Typhon, he had three offspring with Nyx, goddess of the night, who remained connected with the underworld. These were the goddess of the underworld river Lethe, the god of death Thanatos (also death itself) and the god of sleep Hypnos.
Several heroes were also imprisoned in Tartarus as punishment - Ixión, Sisyphus, Tantalos.