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. 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
• 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
• Sicilian: Tàrtaru
• 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