Best Tartarus Poems
I stood naked on the edge,
(Cold feet gripping the stony crag),
Peering into the shadowy depths of the abyss ...
With a distant glint of black flame,
It looked back ...
And smiled.
Aeneid Book 6: The Descent into the Underworld
by Virgil
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The Sibyl began to speak to Aeneas:
“God-blooded Trojan, son of Anchises,
descending into the Underworld’s easy
since Death’s dark door stands eternally unbarred.
But to retrace one’s steps and return to the surface:
that’s the conundrum, that’s the catch!
Godsons have done it, the chosen few
whom welcoming Jupiter favored
and whose virtue merited heaven.
However, even the Blessed find headway’s hard:
immense woods barricade boggy bottomland
where the Cocytus glides with its dark coils.
But if you insist on ferrying the Styx twice
and twice traversing Tartarus,
if Love demands you indulge in such madness,
listen closely to how you must proceed...”
Keywords/Tags: Virgil, Aeneid, descent, underworld, Aeneas, death, door, Jupiter, heaven, woods, Cocytus, River Styx, Stygian, Hades, Tartarus, voyage, journey, love, madness, god, gods
I googled "Hell Is Where You" and got
Hell is where you are.
Hell is where you watch me burn.
Hell is where you find it.
Hell is where you make it.
Hell is where you want to be.
Hell is where you keep my heart.
Hell is where you're headed.
Hell is where you go when you die.
Hell is where you're supposed to be.
Hell is where you belong.
Hell is where you wind up.
Hell is where you don't want to be.
Hell is where you'd rather go anyway.
Hell is where you're sent for eating clams.
Hell is where you came from.
Hell is where you meet the person you could've been.
Hell is where you set celery on fire and shove it up your ass.
Hell is where you begin.
The stupidest one:
Hell is where you go to unite self-assertion and self-deception with its original source
My favorite:
Hell is where you hang your hat.
Harpies shrieked and lost souls wailed
The cold wind stung as embers sailed
A fetid stench, eyes red with dust
When I looked through to Tartarus.
Black column’s rose in demon form
terror enthralling those forlorn
Compelled I shuddered as I must
When I looked through to Tartarus.
Ten-fold my dread, to see your face
Among the shades in this cursed place
I cried your name, you didn’t hear
Glass-eyed and stricken with despair
Bleak bedlam dweller all hope hushed
When I looked through to Tartarus
As I wept, nigh tolled a bell
The Angel Keeper Uriel
Bellowed low “it must be thus”
When I looked through to Tartarus.
shivering …
I stood naked on the edge -
cold feet gripping the
stony crag like a vagabond vulture,
peering into the shadowy
depths of the abyss ...
and with a distant glint of black flame,
the savage shadows looked back ...
and smiled.
Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden, August 15, 2019; rewrite, August 28, 2022