came to a place where the path divided itself into two. The right led
by the walls of Pluto's palace to the happy Field of E-lys'ium, the
land of the blessed. The left path led to Tar'ta-rus, the abode of the
wicked. At this place AEneas saw a vast prison, inclosed by a triple
wall, around which flowed the Phleg'e-thon, a river of fire. In front
of it was a huge gate of solid adamant.

There rolls swift Plegethon, with thund'ring sound,
His broken rocks, and whirls his surges round.
On mighty columns rais'd sublime are hung
The massy gates impenetrably strong.
In vain would men, in vain would gods essay,
To hew the beams of adamant away.
PITT, _AEneid_, BOOK VI.

Deep groans and the grating of iron and the clanking of chains were
heard from out these walls. None except the lost souls the Sibyl said,
were allowed to pass the threshold of Tartarus, and the punishments
there, and the crimes for which the wicked suffered, were such that
she could not tell them though she had a hundred tongues.

"Had I a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues,
And throats of brass, inspired with iron lungs,
I could not half those horrid crimes repeat,
Nor half the punishment those crimes have met."
DRYDEN, _AEneid_, BOOK VI.

Some were punished by being tied to perpetually revolving wheels of
fire. This was the fate of a king named Ix-i'on. Others, like the
robber Sis'y-phus, were condemned to roll huge stones up a hill, and