5 Notable Inmates of Tartarus & Their Crimes

Tartarus was a prison for enemies of the gods and served as a warning to humans who disobeyed them. The souls condemned to Tartarus underwent cruel and unusual punishments. These punishments were particularly gruesome for haughty kings and individuals who dared to defy the laws of Zeus. These inmates included arrogant figures like Ixion and Tantalus, along with the tragic tales of Tityus, the Danaides, and the infamous Sisyphus, who was punished for daring to make fools of the gods.

In Greek mythology, people go to the underworld when they die. Depending on how they live, they are either sentenced by lord Hades or the underworld judges. Most mortal souls are sent to the Asphodel Meadows, where they exist in a forgetful bliss. The souls who have lived exceptionally good lives are sent to Elysium, a paradise where they reside among legendary heroes in perfect groves and streams. In contrast, the damned were dispatched to the hellish pit Tartarus for eternal punishment.

Tartarus is a sub-realm of the underworld where the wicked souls who broke divine and mortal laws were banished to suffer eternal punishment for their crimes. It is one of the Protogenoi, the first primordial gods before the Olympian gods and the Titans. Tartarus is known for being the father of Typhon and the progenitor of all mythical monsters. Hesiod claimed an anvil takes nine days to fall from the heavens to the earth and another nine days to reach the depths of Tartarus.

1. Ixion: The Story of the Cloud and the Wheel

In ancient Greek culture, violating the sacred laws of Xenia—hospitality rules between hosts and guests—was considered the severest offense. Ixion, the king of the Lapiths, an ancient tribe from Thessaly in northern Greece, committed this offense not once but twice.

Ixion committed his first crime due to greed and refusal to pay what he owed. As a young king, Ixion married Dia, the daughter of King Deioneus of Phocis. According to Greek tradition, the groom had to pay the bride’s family a dowry. However, Ixion refused to pay the amount agreed upon after the wedding ceremony. In retaliation, Deioneus sent a raiding party to steal a herd of Ixion’s prized horses. Ixion pretended to apologize and invited his father-in-law to a feast, but he pushed him into a fiery pit and killed him. This act was considered a betrayal of Xenia and a blood crime since they were family through marriage, making Ixion one of the first to commit a blood murder in Greek myth.

The Furies cursed Ixion and he would be driven mad unless an anointed king cleansed him. Unsurprisingly, none of the neighboring kings would cleanse him, as his vile reputation was widely known. For some unknown reason, Zeus chose to purify Ixion for his betrayal of Xenia and blood murder, maybe out of compassion or uncharacteristic optimism about humanity. Following his purification, Zeus even invited Ixion to feast with the gods on Olympus.

It was a rare honor for a mortal to be invited to feast at Olympus. Ixion was likely awestruck by the divine splendor and grandeur that had been prepared for him and the gods. However, for Ixion, none of the banquet offerings could compare to the heavenly beauty of Hera, the Queen of Olympus.

As the festivities went on and Ixion consumed more and more wine, he began to advance on Hera. In a drunken state, he even attempted to make love to her. However, Hera easily pushed him aside. When the banquet had ended, Ixion stumbled down from Olympus back home, and Hera told Zeus everything that had happened. This shocked Zeus, who could not comprehend such a flagrant breach of Xenia, especially in his home. He devised a test for Ixion to confirm Hera’s allegations.

Zeus, the cloud-gatherer, created a copy of Hera by gathering some clouds. He then sent this doppelganger down to Ixion, who was still drunkenly making his way home. Ixion, upon seeing her, made love to her and boasted that he had slept with the queen of Olympus herself. This act of blasphemy angered Zeus, who considered it worse than blood murder. He decided that Ixion needed a unique form of punishment.

Zeus ordered Hermes to pin Ixion to a fiery metal wheel that would spin across the heavens for eternity. Over time, Zeus’s anger only grew, and he hurled Ixion, still spinning on his wheel, into the pits of Tartarus, where he still roasts in the flames.

Nephele, Hera’s cloud doppelganger, had a son named Centauros with Ixion. Centauros was ostracized and sought refuge with wild horses on Mount Pelion. He mated with them, giving birth to the wild centaurs of Greek mythology.

The story of King Tantalus of Lydia is one of the most deplorable tales of a ruler falling from grace due to the violation of Zeus’s sacred laws of Xenia. Tantalus was the son of Zeus and Plouto, a nymph from Mount Sipylus, where the king founded the city cleverly named Tantalis. At first, Tantalus was an exemplary king whose city prospered through the minerals mined from Mount Sipylus. Tantalus married Dione, one of the rain nymphs who nursed baby Dionysus, and together, they had a daughter, Niobe, and two sons, Pelops and Broteas.

His father, Zeus, favored him and invited him to feast with the gods on Mount Olympus, just like Ixion. It must be emphasized that for a mortal to be asked to dine with the Olympians was one of the greatest honors imaginable. Yet, like Ixion, Tantalus could not see this and took advantage of his host and father Zeus’s gracious hospitality.

Tantalus began to steal ambrosia and nectar, the divine food of the gods, perhaps in a vain attempt to turn himself into an immortal. Furthermore, Tantalus reveled in gossip and told his courtiers all the embarrassing details of what he saw the gods get up to.

The gods observed Tantalus’ theft and spreading of rumors. To make amends, Tantalus offered to organize a grand banquet in his palace in Tantalis and invited the Olympians. The Olympians eagerly accepted the invitation, as Tantalus was known for his prosperity and extravagant banquets.

However, this all occurred when Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, was searching for her kidnapped daughter Persephone. Demeter, consumed by grief, had allowed all crops to wither and die, causing a destructive famine that even affected the gods. All the Olympians were excited about the prospect of enjoying Tantalus’ opulent feast during such a time. Unfortunately, what happened at the feast would leave all of them shaken to their divine cores.

It is unclear what Tantalus had in mind when he prepared the banquet. Perhaps it was due to the great famine, his anger toward the gods, or just plain wickedness, but the king prepared a dinner that no one would ever forget. Tantalus served his son Pelops to the gods. He had the boy slaughtered and roasted in a delicate sauce. The nearly all-powerful gods immediately sensed something was wrong and did not eat the vile meal. Still consumed with thoughts of her missing daughter, Demeter was the only one who nibbled at Pelops’ shoulder.

When Zeus realized what had happened to Pelops, he summoned Clotho, one of the three Moirai (fates). Clotho collected Pelops’ body parts and put them in her cauldron to reassemble him. However, the reassembly process could not be completed because Demeter had eaten one of Pelops’ shoulders. Upon realizing her mistake, Demeter asked Hephaestus to create a new shoulder out of ivory, which Clotho used to complete her spell. Once Pelops was reassembled, Zeus breathed life back into him.

Tantalus was imprisoned in Tartarus, and his punishment was fitting for a man who tried to deceive the gods into eating the flesh of a victim of a blood crime. Tantalus was placed in a water pool that reached his waist. Just above him hung the branches of the most delicious fruits imaginable. Each time Tantalus tried to pick a fruit, the branches would move out of his reach. The water would recede out of his grasp whenever he bent to drink from the pool. He couldn’t escape the pool because a large stone loomed over him, ready to crush him if he moved away. Tantalus would spend eternity suffering from hunger, with the fruits and water inches out of reach, tantalizingly close—yet forever unattainable.

Tantalus’ heinous crimes led to a curse that followed his descendants to the Trojan War and beyond. Broteas died in flames, Apollo and Artemis killed Niobe’s children, Pelops accidentally killed his father-in-law, and his sons Atreus and Thyestes committed several blood crimes. The curse of Tantalus reached its peak with Agamemnon, son of Atreus. His infamous murder by his wife Clytemnestra led to bloody revenge, which lifted the curse with the last of Tantalus’s line, Orestes, Agamemnon’s son.

The story of Tityos is a brief yet tragic one. He was the son of Zeus and a beautiful princess named Elara, the daughter of King Orchomenus, ruler of the Thessalonian city-state of Orchomenus. When Zeus discovered that Elara was pregnant, he hid her deep within the earth (Gia) to keep his infidelity a secret from his wife, Hera. This was to prevent Hera from seeking revenge against Elara. Due to Elara’s proximity to the bountiful personification of Mother Earth, her baby grew to gigantic proportions while still in her womb, causing her to die midterm. Fortunately, Gia carried the enormous fetus for the remainder of its term.

Tityos, the newly born giant, emerged from a cave in Euboea known as what would later be called Elarion in honor of his mother. After a short time, Hera discovered Tityos and learned of his parentage.

Since Elara was dead, Hera sought revenge on Tityos. She sent magical words to him, urging him to forcefully make love to Leto, one of Hera’s rivals in love. While passing through the town of Panopeus in Phocis on her way to Delphi, Leto was seen by Tityos, who was overcome by an uncontrollable desire to make love to her. Leto called for help when Tityos tried to harm her and Apollo and Artemis appeared and killed him with arrows.

There are different versions of the myth regarding Tityos. In some versions, Zeus condemns him to Tartarus, while in others, it is Apollo. Tityos was punished by being stretched out and pinned down. According to Homer, the giant’s body covered almost nine acres of Tartarus when fully extended. Each day, two vultures descended and devoured Tityos’ liver, which grew back every night, resulting in a continuous cycle of agony similar to Prometheus’ suffering.

The story of the Danaids also tells us not to go against the sacred laws of Xenia. King Belus divided his kingdom equally between his twin sons, Danaus and Aegyptus. Aegyptus seized power over the Nile basin and suggested that his 50 sons marry the 50 daughters of Danaus to gain more control over Danaus’s land. Danaus was worried about his daughter’s safety and turned to Athena for help. The goddess advised him to build the first-ever ships to sail him and his daughters to safety. First, they sailed to Rhodes, where Danaus built a shrine to Athena.

From there, they sailed to their ancestral home of Argos, where its ruler, King Pelasgus, hesitantly welcomed them. In some versions of the story, Danaus becomes the ruler of Argos after Pelasgus is either dethroned by a citizen vote or because he witnessed a wolf killing a bull and took it as a sign that Danaus should be the new leader.

Aegyptus found Danaus in Argos and proposed marriage between their children. Danaus agreed to avoid conflict but continued to plan his revenge. The method of matching their children is unclear, with some sources suggesting it was based on status and others claiming it was done through a lottery.

Danaus suggested hosting the wedding, and it turned out to be one of the most magnificent festivals that the people of Argos had ever experienced. On that night, 50 marriages were celebrated. On the day of the festivities, Danaus met with his daughters and gave them a dagger each and some blasphemous instructions that would violate the sacred laws of Xenia.

The story goes that the 50 daughters of Danaus were commanded by their father to kill their husbands, the 50 sons of Aegyptus, on their wedding night. All but one of the sons were killed as the Danaids dutifully obeyed their father’s orders. However, Hypermnestra, the eldest daughter, refused to kill her husband, Lynceus, who was the eldest son of Aegyptus. The reason for her disobedience is unclear, but some speculate that she fell in love with Lynceus at first sight, while others believe it was because he showed her kindness and respected her wish to remain a virgin. Hypermnestra pleaded with Lynceus to flee, and he did so, running to the nearby town of Lyrceia, where he lit a beacon to let Hypermnestra know he was safe.

The Danaids presented their husbands’ heads to Danaus and buried them outside the city walls. Aegyptus died upon hearing the tragic news. Hypermnestra was imprisoned for her disobedience but was then acquitted when Aphrodite came to her defense and ordered her to marry Lynceus. In some versions, Lynceus murders Danaus out of revenge. Hypermnestra and Lynceus became the rulers of Argos, and Perseus was born from their lineage.

After committing blood murder, the remaining 49 Danaids were spared from the wrath of the furies when Zeus sent Athena and Hermes to purify them. However, their bloody reputation made finding them new husbands nearly impossible. To solve the problem, Danaus decided to renounce the custom of dowry. Instead, they implemented a running race, with the winner being able to choose his wife first, the second winner being able to select his wife second, and so on.

Amymone, Danaus’s youngest daughter, was the only one who did not get married at the end of the competition. While Danaus organized the race, Amymone was fetching water when she encountered a sleeping satyr who tried to assault her, but Poseidon saved her. He fell in love with her, and they got married.

Although the gods absolved the Danaids of their blood crimes and avoided the wrath of the Furies, Zeus never forgave the breach of Xenia and ensured that 48 of the Danaids ended up in Tartarus after their deaths. Amymone was spared from this fate.

As punishment for breaking their marriage vows and betraying Xenia, the 48 Daniads were ordered to fill a bathtub and wash their sins away. Once they had bathed in the waters of Tartarus, they would be cleansed and free to leave. However, the bathtub and all the vessels given to fill it had holes and leaked perpetually. As a result, the Daniads would spend eternity trying in vain to fill their baths and cleanse their souls.

Sisyphus is one of the most infamous inmates of Tartarus. Although some consider his crimes heroic achievements that showcase human ingenuity over the might of the Olympian gods, we must not forget that he was a wicked soul at his core. Sisyphus, the founder of Corinth, manipulated his loved ones and selfishly took whatever he wanted despite his reputation as the man who cheated death and the gods.

Sisyphus was the son of Aeolus and Enarete, the first king and queen of Thessaly. Aeolus, along with his two brothers Dorus and Xuthus and their father Hellen, were the founding ancestors of various ancient Greek tribes. Aeolus and Enarete had several children, although only their sons, Sisyphus and Salmoneus, feature prominently in mythic narratives.

When Sisyphus came of age, he left Thessaly and founded a city-state named Ephyra after the Oceanid, whose springs supplied water to the city. The city would later be renamed Corinth. Under Sisyphus’s cunning leadership, the city flourished; he ruled with an iron fist, but he was clever. Sisyphus negotiated and established vital trade routes throughout the Greek world that would ensure his city’s future prosperity. However, Sisyphus was also arrogant and selfish; he defied Xenia and would often murder guests and travelers in his city and lands, stealing their belongings for his city’s benefit and his own. Sisyphus is believed to have founded the Isthmian Games, a festival of athletic and musical competitions to honor Poseidon, the god of the sea.

Brotherly Love

Sisyphus and his brother, Salmoneus, deeply hated each other. Salmoneus was a king who founded a city in the region of Elis, which he named Salmonia after himself. Their bitter rivalry extended beyond sibling conflicts and consumed both of them, causing them to think of ways to kill each other constantly. However, they knew that if either of them committed murder, they would be hunted by the furies.

One day, Sisyphus sought advice from an oracle to find a loophole in this predicament. The oracle predicted that if Sisyphus married Salmoneus’s daughter, Tyro, their sons would go on to kill their grandfather, Salmoneus, allowing Sisyphus to enact his revenge without the penalties of blood murder. Sisyphus put all his energy into charming his niece, and eventually, they married and had two sons. However, years later, Tyro overheard Sisyphus discussing his true intentions for marrying her. Out of love for her father, Tyro drowned their sons in a river and ran back to her father’s place before Sisyphus could find out what she had done.

Although Sisyphus failed in his revenge plans, he did not have to wait long to see his brother meet an unfortunate end. Salmoneus was just as wicked as his brothers, but his sin was impious hubris.

Salmoneus began to see himself as a god and forced his citizens to worship him under the name of Zeus. He built a magnificent brass bridge in his city and often rode his chariot over it to mimic thunder. Men would bang cauldrons and throw burning torches over the bridge to simulate thunder and lightning. For his sin of hubris, Zeus threw lightning bolts down, vaporizing Salmoneus and destroying his entire kingdom. Salmoneus was sentenced to spend the rest of eternity in Tartarus, but there is no definitive record of the type of punishment he endured there.

Sisyphus was a cunning and intelligent man, as can be seen in his dealings with the famous thief Autolycus, son of Hermes. Sisyphus received reports from his cattle herders that his cows were vanishing without a trace. Suspecting that Autolycus, his neighbor, was the culprit, he ordered his men to keep an eye on him. Although Autolycus was slowly growing his herd while Sisyphus’s herd was gradually diminishing, there was no evidence to prove that he was stealing the cows. Autolycus’s cows were brown and white, while Sisyphus’s were black and white. However, as the son of the trickster Hermes, Autolycus had magical gifts that allowed him to steal Sisyphus’s cows stealthily and change their colors to match his herd.

Sisyphus was determined to catch Autolycus in the act. He ordered his men to inscribe “Autolycus stole me” under the remaining cows’ hooves. As expected, more cows vanished, and Sisyphus went to Autolycus and asked to inspect his herd. Autolycus, confident that he had not been caught, agreed, and Sisyphus found several cows with the hidden inscription, proving that Autolycus was indeed the cattle thief.

As compensation, Sisyphus not only took all of his and Autolycus’s cows but also abducted Autolycus’s daughter, Anticlea, for a night as further punishment. Anticlea was the mother of Odysseus by Laërtes. However, later writers argue that the cattle rustling incident suggests that Sisyphus was Odysseus’s actual father although the timeline does not make sense.

How to Cheat Death

As he was prone to do, Zeus kidnapped the beautiful nymph Aegina and took her to the island of Oenone to make love to her. Aegina’s father, Asopus, the river god, searched Greece to find his daughter but was unsuccessful.

Sisyphus, a clever man aware of his many wrongdoings, kept a watchful eye on the gods and knew precisely where Zeus had taken Aegina. He decided to tell Asopus where his daughter was in exchange for a reward, which the river god was happy to pay. This was the last straw for Zeus. He could overlook Sisyphus’s other crimes but could not tolerate a snitch. As a result, he ordered Thanatos, the personification of death, to capture Sisyphus and take him in chains to Tartarus.

On a dark and eerie night, Thanatos shook Sisyphus awake, holding chains to drag him to the underworld. One would assume that the sight of death would strike fear in a person, but not sly Sisyphus. He was unimpressed by the visage of death and even remarked that he expected him to look more imposing. Thanatos then ordered Sisyphus to put on the shackles of death. Still, Sisyphus feigned confusion and struggled to put them on. He asked Thanatos to show him how to do it.

Now slightly annoyed, death personified put the shackles on his wrists to demonstrate how to do it. However, as soon as Thanatos clicked the manacles in place, he realized what he had done. Sisyphus had cheated death, hidden Thanatos in his palace, and left the bewildered Chthonic god, and returned to bed.

The absence of death went unnoticed for several days. Neither Zeus, Hades, nor the psychopomp Hermes thought to check on Thanato’s mission to retrieve a mere mortal like Sisyphus. However, the gods soon noticed something peculiar. No one was dying. They observed people who should have died of sickness or old age continue to suffer long after they should have. Even more jarring were the warriors on the battefields who, despite getting stabbed, trampled, and shot with arrows, kept getting back up while having to endure the unimaginable pain that these otherwise deadly injuries inflicted.

The plague of deathlessness angered no Olympian more than Ares, the god of war. War and battles were pointless without death, mocking his domain. Ares took the lead in investigating the problem. With Hermes’s assistance, who was the first to link Thanatos’s disappearances with Sisyphus, they went to Corinth and quickly discovered a very ashamed, imprisoned Thanatos in Sisyphus’s palace.

Sisyphus did not resist when Hermes and Ares approached him. He knew the gods would eventually find Thanatos, so he went along willingly. Sisyphus was no fool and had prepared a plan for precisely this moment.

Years after Tyro left Sisyphus, he had remarried a much younger woman. Although it is not entirely clear who she was, many believe it was Merope, daughter of the Titan Atlas, with whom Sisyphus had several children, including Glaucus, the father of the famous hero Bellerophon.

When Death stopped functioning, Sisyphus instructed his devoted wife that if he died, she should not bury him or perform any rites or offerings to the gods of the underworld. Instead, she should throw his corpse to the dogs and spend his funeral money on herself. These instructions appalled Merope, but Sisyphus told her she would have to follow his instructions if she truly loved him.

Hermes led Sisyphus to the River Styx and left him to be ferried across by Charon to the palace of Hades for judgment. However, when Charon asked for payment, Sisyphus had nothing to offer him. Sisyphus’ wife had obeyed his orders perfectly. As he had no obol coins to pay the ferryman, Sisyphus was thrown into the icy waters of the river Styx. After a while, he managed to swim across and reached the palace of Hades. Here, he was granted an audience with the underworld queen, Persephone. However, Persephone was disgusted by Sisyphus’s appearance.

In the underworld, Sisyphus’s form mirrored his corpse, which, as per his instructions, had not been buried and was left to be eaten and mutilated by dogs. This disrespect toward the departed was unacceptable to the underworld queen.

Persephone demanded to know why Sisyphus appeared so ghastly, and feigning an unmatched sorrow, Sisyphus spun a tale of tragedy. He claimed that his wife held him in contempt and had no intention of honoring his death or making offerings to the gods of the underworld. This greatly angered Persephone, who could not tolerate such disrespect for herself or her husband, Hades.

For Merope’s blasphemy, she began contemplating how to punish her. Sisyphus saw an opportunity and suggested a plan for revenge. He proposed that Persephone send him back to the land of the living as a younger man, allowing him to spend the rest of his life scolding and punishing his wife for her blasphemy against the underworld gods. Persephone was pleased with the idea and sent Sisyphus back up to the land of the living.

It was an unwritten rule among the gods that they could not overturn the decisions of their fellow gods. Thus, much to the disappointment of Zeus and Hades, Sisyphus was allowed to live for many decades before eventually dying of old age.

Sisyphus died for a third and final time. Hermes came to escort him directly to the underworld. This time, Sisyphus’s family made all the necessary supplications and offerings to the underworld lords, but Hermes still led Sisyphus over the River Styx to the depths of Tartarus.

Upon arriving, Sisyphus saw a large boulder at the bottom of a moderately steep hill. As punishment for cheating death and daring to trick the gods of Olympus and the underworld, Hermes told Sisyphus that he would have to push the boulder to the hill’s summit. If Sisyphus succeeded, he would no longer be incarcerated in Tartarus and could leave to enjoy the Elysian fields. However, Sisyphus was unaware that Hades had enchanted the boulder to slip from his grasp and roll back down the hill just as it neared its summit. This left the cunning king of Corinth to push the rock up the hill for all eternity perpetually. As a result, continuing to engage in a pointless or endless activity is now commonly described as Sisyphean.

Scholars have interpreted the myth of Sisyphus in various ways over the centuries. Some have celebrated him as a hero who outwitted the gods, while others view his endless torment as an absurd metaphor for the human condition. Arguably, no other prisoner in Tartarus has inspired humanity more than Sisyphus.