Τάρταρος

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• Τάρτᾰρᾰ (Tártara)

Etymology

According to Strabo, this word had been fancifully believed to have been invented by Homer with the city of Ταρτησσός (Tartēssós) in mind, with a slight change of letters, it being west of the Ἡράκλειοι Στῆλαι (Hērákleioi Stêlai), or Pillars of Heracles, beyond which the sun sinks past Oceanus as it enters into Tartarus. A semantic connection of Definition 2 with the doomed, sunken civilization of Atlantis has not been overlooked.

Klein suggests (at least partly) otherwise: "prob[ably] word of imitative origin, suggestive of something frightful."

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /tár.ta.ros/ → /ˈtar.ta.ros/ → /ˈtar.ta.ros/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /tár.ta.ros/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈtar.ta.ros/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈtar.ta.ros/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈtar.ta.ros/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈtar.ta.ros/

Proper noun

Τάρτᾰρος • (Tártaros) m (genitive Ταρτᾰ́ρου); second declension

1. Tartarus
2. (Christendom) metaphor for Hell

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ Τάρτᾰρος; τοῦ Ταρτᾰ́ρου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular
Nominative	ὁ Τάρτᾰρος ho Tártaros
Genitive	τοῦ Ταρτᾰ́ρου toû Tartárou
Dative	τῷ Ταρτᾰ́ρῳ tôi Tartárōi
Accusative	τὸν Τάρτᾰρον tòn Tártaron
Vocative	Τάρτᾰρε Tártare
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• Ταρτᾰ́ρειος (Tartáreios)
• ταρτᾰρῐ́ζω (tartarízō)
• Ταρτᾰ́ρῐος (Tartários)
• ταρτᾰρῑ́της (tartarī́tēs)
• Ταρτᾰρόπαις (Tartarópais)
• ταρτᾰροῦχος (tartaroûkhos)
• ταρτᾰρόω (tartaróō)

Descendants

• → Asturian: Tártaru
• → Breton: Tartarus
• → Bulgarian: Тартар (Tartar)
• → Catalan: Tàrtar
• → Czech: Tartaros
• → Danish: Tartaros
• → Dutch: Tartarus
• → English: Tartarus
• → Finnish: Tartaros
• → French: Tartare
• → German: Tartaros
• Greek: Τάρταρος (Tártaros)
• → Hebrew: טרטרוס
• → Italian: Tartaro
• → Japanese: タルタロス (Tarutarosu)
• → Latin: Tartarus
• → Lithuanian: Tartaras
• → Low German: Tartaros
• → Luxembourgish: Tartaros
• → Norwegian: Tartaros
• → Polish: Tartar
• → Portuguese: Tártaro
• → Romanian: Tartarus
• → Russian: Та́ртар (Tártar)
• → Serbo-Croatian: Tartar
• → Sicilian: Tàrtaru
• → Slovak: Tartaros
• → Slovene: Tartar
• → Spanish: Tártaro, Tártaros
• → Swedish: Tartaros
• → Thai: ทาร์ทารัส
• → Turkish: Tartarus
• → Vietnamese: Tartarus

See also

• Τάνταλος (Tántalos)

References

• “Τάρταρος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Τάρταρος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “Τάρταρος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• Τάρταρος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• “Τάρταρος”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, page 1,026