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, or Pillars of Heracles, beyond which the sun sinks past Oceanus as it enters into Tartarus.

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
• 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: Тартар (Tartar)
• Serbo-Croatian: Tartar
• Slovak: Tartaros
• Slovene: Tartar
• Spanish: Tártaro, Tártaros
• Swedish: Tartaros
• Thai: ทาร์ทารัส
• Turkish: Tartarus
• Vietnamese: Tartarus

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