VIEWS OF THE AFTERLIFE: THE REALM OF HADES 345sacred gates open wide, turning with strident horror on their creaking hinges.
Do you see what kind of sentry sits at the entrance? What forms are watching
in the threshold? The monstrous Hydra, more fierce than the Furies with its fifty
black and gaping throats, has its home within. Then Tartarus itself yawns deep
under the shades, extending straight down twice as far as the view upward to
the sky and celestial Olympus."In Tartarus Vergil places the Homeric sinners Tityus, Sisyphus, and possi-
bly Tantalus; but there is difficulty in the text and its interpretation. Tityus is
the only one of the three named directly. Other criminals identified by Vergil
are the Titans, who were hurled to the very bottom of Tartarus by the thunder-
bolts of Jupiter; the sons of Aloeus, Otus and Ephialtes,^15 who tried to storm
heaven and seize Jupiter himself; Salmoneus, who was foolish enough to play
the role of Jupiter and claim divine honors; Theseus and Pirithous; Phlegyas;^16
and Ixion. Ixion is one of the more famous sinners condemned to Tartarus; he
is punished by being bound to a wheel that eternally revolves.^17
Vergil's Tartarus is not a hell just for heroic sinners of mythological antiq-
uity; in it all who are guilty suffer punishment. It is important to realize fully
the ethical standards he applies. The nature of sin is clearly summed up by the
Sibyl as she continues; just as clear is the moral conviction that assigns happi-
ness to the good in the paradise of Elysium (608-751):f
"Here are imprisoned and await punishment those who hated their brothers
while they were alive or struck a parent and devised guile against a depend-
ent or who hovered over their acquired wealth all alone and did not share it
with their relatives (these misers were the greatest throng), and those who
were killed for adultery or took up arms in an impious cause and were not
afraid to betray the pledges made to their masters. Do not seek to learn the
nature of the crime and fate of each and every sinner and the punishment in
which he is submerged. Some roll a huge rock, others hang stretched on the
spokes of a wheel; Theseus sits in his misery and will remain sitting forever;
wretched Phlegyas admonishes all as he bears testimony in a loud voice among
the shades: 'Be warned! Learn justice and not to despise the gods.' This one
sold his country for gold, set up a tyrannical despot, made laws and revoked
them for a price. This one invaded the bedroom of his daughter in forbidden
incestuous marriage.
"All dared enormous crime and were successful in the attainment of their dar-
ing. I should not be able to recount all the forms of wickedness or enumerate all
the names of the punishments if I had a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths."
After the aged priestess of Phoebus had uttered these words, she continued:
"But come now, proceed on your way and accomplish the task you have un-
dertaken. Let us hurry. I see opposite fortifications of Pluto's palace erected by
the forges of the Cyclopes and the vaulted arch of its door where we have been
ordered to lay down this gift!" She had spoken, and making their way together
through the gloom of the path they hurried over the space between and ap-
proached the gates. Aeneas reached the entrance, sprinkled himself with fresh
water, and placed the bough on the threshold.