Tartaruchi (singular: ''tartaruchus'', meaning "holder of Tartarus") are the keepers of

Tartarus In Greek mythology, Tartarus (; grc, , }) is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato's ''Gorgias'' (), souls are judg ...

(

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

), according to the 4th century,

non-canonical The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean "according to the canon" the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, "canonical example ...

Apocalypse of Paul The Apocalypse of Paul (''Apocalypsis Pauli'', more commonly known in the Latin tradition as the or ) is a fourth-century non-canonical apocalypse and part of the New Testament apocrypha. The full original Greek version of the ''Apocalypse'' is ...

''. The author describes them as using one hand to choke damned souls, and the other using an " iron of three hooks".

Temeluchus Temeluchus (probably a garbled transliteration of the Greek Telémakhos; literally, "far-away fighter") is the leader of the tartaruchi, the chief angel of torment (and possibly Satan himself), according to the extracanonical ''Apocalypse of Paul ...

is the only tartaruchus named in the work. Tartaruchus is mentioned in the Vision of Saint Paul in chapters 16 and 18 "...Let him therefore be delivered unto the angel Tartaruchus that is set over the torments, and let him cast him into the outer darkness where is weeping and gnashing of teeth... .....And I heard a voice saying: Let that soul be delivered into the hands of Tartaruchus, and he must be taken down into hell...".https://web.archive.org/web/20060104124542/http://www.comparative-religion.com/christianity/apocrypha/new-testament-apocrypha/4/5.php (accessed 12 April 2018) The Tartaruchi are also mentioned in 2 Ethiopian Maccabees (12:13) "...And before he had finished saying this, the Angels of Death - whose name are called the Thilimyakos artaruchi- alit and struck him in the heart, dead..." The Italian and Portuguese word '' tartaruga'' ("turtle" or "tortoise") derives from this noun, as may English ''tortoise'' and ''turtle''.

References

Angels in Christianity Classes of angels Demons Demons in Christianity Afterlife in Christianity Apocryphal revelations {{NewTestament-apocrypha-stub