Tartarus = Tortoise!

I always thought "Tartarus" was Hell - not really the Devil-with-pitchfork and eternal fire roasting one's butt kind of place (although some people really do deserve such a place for eternity!), but a place similar to my old Catholic conception of Purgatory, which was where unbaptised babies went when they died, a sort of dread place, not really described.  As a young girl in a Roman Catholic school (I was 8), I remember being herded into St. Rose's Chruch on November 2nd to pray for the poor lost souls in Purgatory.  I also remember that there was a formula, although I no longer remember the formula - but it was this: if I said a certain number of prayers in a certain period of time, I saved one soul from Purgatory.  To my eyes it seemed we all prayed our butts off to save those poor souls.  We were limited in time - I think it was 3 hours - and then we were herded out of the church by our nuns back to school to finish the day.  We were not allowed to finish the day in church, I don't know why -- although as an adult I figure the nuns must have thought we weren't really praying after a certain point, we were just pretending!  Well, I did pray my butt off - just in case - but even at 8 years of age I had my doubts :)  On the other hand, I did not want to be personally responsible for even one small unbaptized baby spending an eternity in Purgatory if I could save it with my prayers.  I guess it was evident even then that it was my destiny to become a pagan Christian. 

Whatever...  So - knock me over with a feather, darlings, when I popped open my edition of Barbara G. Walker's The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.  I randomly selected the "T's" tonight and came upon the entry for Tartarus:

Tartarus
Greek name of the underworld, related to tartaruga, "tortoise," because archaic Hindu tradition claimed the earth was supported by Vishnu in the form of a tortoise. The tortoise was a totem of the Underground God, sometimes incarnate in Pan or Hermes who invented the tortoise-shell lyre to create universal harmony.(1) In alchemy, the Underground God became spiritus tartari, spirit of Tartarus, a description of tartaric acid, or simply tartar.

Notes:
(1) Jung & Kerenyi, 78.

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The old legend about the tortoise being the foundation of the earth is Indo-European. Duh! I guess I already knew that, but reading it again tonight turned on new light-bulbs in my brain.

Is this connected to the ancient Chinese Lo-Shu legend that introduced the world's oldest known 3x3 perfect magic square?

4 9 2
3 9 7
8 1 6

(Image: by Linda Braatz-Brown). Sum the rows up across, down, diagonally, they all equal 15.  If you sum the "1" and "5" together you get "6."  All those sixes.  Demonology! 

The Lo-Shu, according to Tony Smith, dates back to 4,200 years ago (c. 2200 BCE).

Notice how there are thirteen "divisions" on the shell of the tortoise.  Thirteen is a number sacred to the Great Goddess.