Tartărus

, (plural, a, orum), one of the regions of hell, where, according to the ancients, the most impious and guilty among mankind were punished. It was surrounded by a brazen wall, and its entrance was continually hidden from the sight by a cloud of darkne , which is represented three times more gloomy than the obscurest night. According to Hesiod it was a separate prison, at a greater distance from the earth than the earth is from the heavens. Virgil says that it was surrounded by three impenetrable walls, and by the impetuous and burning streams of the river Phlegethon. The entrance was by a large and lofty tower, whose gates were supported by columns of adamant, which neither gods nor men could open. In Tartar us, according to Virgil, were punished such as had been disobedient to their parents, traitors, adulterers, faithle ministers, and such as had undertaken unjust and cruel wars, or had betrayed their friends for the sake of money. It was also the place where Ixion, Tityus, the Danaides, Tantalus, Sisyphus, . , were punished, according to Ovid. Hesiod , Theogony , li. 720 .— Silius Italic us , bk. 13 , li. 591 .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 6 .— Homer , Ody ey , bk. 11 .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 4 , fable 13.――A small river of Italy, near Verona. Tacitus , Histories , bk. 3 , ch. 9 .