In ancient Greek mythology, Tartarus was the region of the underworld reserved for the wicked and rebellious.
Tartarus was imagined as a deep, gloomy place beneath Hades. In early Greek cosmology it could be treated as a primordial cosmic region, but mythic and later literary traditions also made it a prison for formidable enemies of the gods and for humans who committed especially serious offenses.
The Titans are famously confined in Tartarus after Zeus and the Olympians defeat them. Other figures, including Tantalus and Sisyphus in later traditions, are associated with punishments in the underworld, though their individual stories should not be collapsed into one identical location or punishment.
Tartarus differs from Elysium, the blessed destination of heroes and virtuous people, and from the Asphodel Meadows, a more ordinary region for many dead. Roman poets, especially Virgil, further shaped how later readers imagined the Greek underworld.