Tartarus in Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology

（*Ta/rtaros), a son of Aether and Ge, and by his mother Ge the father of the Gigantes, Typhoeus and Echidna. (Hygin. Praef. p. 3, &c., Fab. 152 ; Hes. Theog. 821 ; Apollod. 2.1.2.) In the Iliad Tartarus is a place far below the earth, as far below Hades as Heaven is above the earth, and closed by iron gates. (Hom. 2.8.13 &c., 481; comp. Hes. Theog. 807.) Later poets describe Tartarus as the place in the lower world in which the spirits of wicked men are punished for their crimes, and sometimes they use the name as synonymous with Hades or the lower world in general; and pater Tartarus is used for Pluto. (V. Fl. 4.258.) - A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, William Smith, Ed.