WAITING

M. M. NINAN
gods and goddesses.) were thrown into Tartarus, with a few exceptions. Even some of the
Olympian gods were sent there as Apollo was once a prisoner there. Generally it was the
prison house of the powerful super beings in the Greek mythology. Even though initially only
immortals were cast into Tartarus but, later, it came to be a place for wicked mortals as well.
In Roman mythology, Tartarus is the place where sinners are sent. Virgil describes it in the
Aeneid as a gigantic place, surrounded by the flaming river Phlegethon and triple walls to
prevent sinners from escaping from it.
It is guarded by a hydra with fifty black gaping jaws, which sits at a screeching gate protected
by columns of solid adamantine, a substance akin to diamond - so hard that nothing will cut
through it.
Hydra and Tisiphone
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