Taenarum
A promontory at the southern tip of the Peloponnese believed to contain an entrance to the underworld
The Story of Taenarum
Taenarum (modern Cape Matapan) is the southernmost point of mainland Greece, a windswept promontory at the tip of the Mani peninsula. A cave near the headland was regarded as one of the principal entrances to the underworld, and it was through this passage that both Heracles and Orpheus were said to have descended to the realm of Hades. Heracles passed through Taenarum on his final labour, descending to capture the three-headed guard dog Cerberus and bring him to the surface. Orpheus entered by the same route to attempt the rescue of his dead wife Eurydice. The site housed a sanctuary of Poseidon and served as an important place of asylum — supplicants could not be forcibly removed from the temple precinct. The Spartans violated this sanctuary by dragging away helot refugees, an act of sacrilege that some ancient writers believed brought divine retribution upon Sparta. Strabo and Pausanias both describe the cave and its association with the underworld. The desolate landscape of Taenarum, with its rocky headland, dark caves, and crashing seas, perfectly embodied the Greek imagination of the boundary between the living and the dead.
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None recorded
Symbols
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Cape Taenarum
🏛 placeEntrance to the underworld
Cape Taenarum (modern Cape Matapan) at the southern tip of the Peloponnese was one of the most famous entrances to the underworld.
Lerna
🏛 placeSwamp of the Hydra
Lerna was a marshy region near Argos, famed as the lair of the Lernaean Hydra and believed to contain one of the entrances to the underworld.
Geraestus
🏛 placegeography
The southernmost promontory of Euboea, a key waypoint for sailors with a temple of Poseidon.
Chersonese
🏛 placegeography
The narrow Thracian peninsula (modern Gallipoli), site of Protesilaus' sanctuary and Hecuba's transformation.
Lilybaeum
🏛 placegeography
The westernmost promontory of Sicily, near where Odysseus encountered the land of the dead in some traditions.
Lake Avernus
🏛 placeunderworld, entrance
A volcanic crater lake near Cumae believed to be an entrance to the Underworld, whose noxious fumes were said to kill birds flying overhead.
Acheron
🏛 placeRiver of Woe in the underworld
The Acheron was the River of Woe in the underworld, which the dead had to cross — in some traditions it was Charon's river rather than the Styx.
Hades
🏛 placeUnderworld geography
The vast underground kingdom of the dead ruled by the god Hades and his queen Persephone
Acheron River
🏛 placeUnderworld geography
The river of woe in the Greek underworld across which the dead were ferried by Charon
Tartarus
🏛 placeThe deepest pit of the underworld
The deepest abyss beneath the earth, as far below Hades as heaven is above earth. Tartarus was the prison of the Titans and the ultimate place of punishment.
Underworld
🏛 placeRealm of the dead
The Underworld was the vast subterranean realm where all mortal souls went after death — a geography of rivers, fields, and judges more detailed than any other mythological afterlife.
Leucas
🏛 placeSacred geography
A promontory and island in western Greece associated with a leap of purification and the death of Sappho