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Tartarus: The Under-Underworld
That old party game of limbo always asks, "how low can you go?". Well, the lowest point you
can
possibly reach would have to be Tartarus. How low is Tartarus you ask? Well according to the
Hesiod, if you dropped an anvil from the earth down to Tartarus it would take nine days and nine
nights to reach the bottom. Tartarus of course is the lowest region of the underworld....much lower
than Hades or Erebus. Tartarus was one of the first entities to exist according to Hesiod's Theogony.
If you think going to Hades is a bad thing, try Tartarus. This place was a gloomy pit surrounded by
a
large bronze wall and within was endless night. From what I've read, the only beings to be sent to
this horrible eternal prison were those who opposed the Olympians....primarily Zeus. As we know
from the story of creation in the Hesiod, Zeus imprisoned the Titans in Tartarus after he and his
brothers and sisters won the ten year war for control over the heavens.
Tartarus is held behind enormous bronze gates and is guarded by the Hecatoncheires.
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