![]() In another tradition, recorded by the Roman mythographer known as Hyginus, Sisyphus was locked in a bitter conflict with his brother Salmoneus. The version of Sisyphus described by Pausanias and Apollodorus thus joins the ranks of other ill-fated mythological tattletales. Other examples include Battus, transformed into a stone by Hermes after he disclosed that the infant god had stolen Apollo’s cattle, or Ascalaphus, buried alive by Demeter after he testified that Persephone had tasted food in the Underworld (which forced her to forever remain Hades’ wife). This myth follows a pattern seen elsewhere in Greek mythology, in which a god disproportionately punishes someone for revealing their secrets. But the gift, however grand, was little consolation in the end: in this version, Sisyphus received his eternal punishment solely for betraying Zeus’ secret. In exchange for this information, some said, Sisyphus was given a spring on the Acrocorinth. As in Pherecydes’ account, Sisyphus told Asopus that Zeus had carried off Aegina. Several well-known authors-among them the geographer Pausanias and the mythographer Apollodorus-simplified the myth of Sisyphus by excluding his attempts to cheat Death. Once he was back in the Underworld for good, the gods punished his all-too-brief victory over death by forcing him to forever push a stone up a hill. Once back, of course, he did not return to the Underworld.Įventually, however, Sisyphus died of old age. When Sisyphus reached the Underworld, he convinced Hades (or Hades’ queen Persephone, in some versions) to let him return to the world of the living to punish his wife for neglecting his funeral. Because of this, all humans (not just Sisyphus) were temporarily spared from death-at least until Zeus sent Ares to set things right.Īfter Death had been freed, he seized Sisyphus and took him to the Underworld-but not before Sisyphus instructed his wife Merope not to perform the customary funerary rituals for him. In revenge, Zeus sent Death to take Sisyphus to the Underworld. The most complete account of this myth comes from a summary of the story as it would have been told in the lost writings of Pherecydes, a genealogist and mythographer of the fifth century BCE.Īccording to Pherecydes, it all started when Sisyphus revealed to the river god Asopus that he had seen Zeus carrying off Aegina, Asopus’ daughter. In what has become the most familiar tradition, Sisyphus was punished because he cheated Death. ![]() Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich, Germany.īut there were different accounts of the crime that so memorably provoked the gods’ wrath. Īttic black-figure amphora showing the punishment of Sisyphus in the Underworld. But he would strain again and thrust it back, and the sweat flowed down from his limbs, and dust rose up from his head. Verily he would brace himself with hands and feet, and thrust the stone toward the crest of a hill, but as often as he was about to heave it over the top, the weight would turn it back, and then down again to the plain would come rolling the ruthless stone. In the Odyssey, Odysseus describes seeing Sisyphus pushing his stone in the Underworld: In antiquity (as is still the case today), Sisyphus served as a cautionary tale for the terrible consequences of offending the gods. Crime and Punishment: Three Versions of Sisyphus But in other traditions, Medea made Sisyphus king of Corinth after she killed the city’s royal family. He was sometimes said to have actually founded the city. Sisyphus was usually described as the king of Ephyra (the original name of Corinth). Finally, there were apparently traditions in which Sisyphus was a lover of Medea. ![]() Īccording to some traditions, Sisyphus also seduced Anticlea and thus became the father of Odysseus, one of the most famous heroes of the Trojan War (though in most sources Odysseus was the son of Laertes). But they had other children too: Pausanias lists them as Ornytion, Thersander, and Almus, while a commentator on Apollonius of Rhodes’ Argonautica adds Sinon and Porphyrion. Their most famous child was Glaucus, who became the father (or foster father) of the hero Bellerophon. Sisyphus married Merope, one of the daughters of the Titan Atlas. In some traditions, however, Sisyphus’ siblings shared their names with Greek cities and towns, including Mimas, Tanagra, and Arne -which, according to local myths, had been named after them. His sisters included Canace, Alcyone, Pisidice, Calyce, and Perimede. His brothers included Cretheus, Athamas, Salmoneus, and Perieres, as well as Deion and Magnes (in some sources). ![]() Sisyphus was the son of Aeolus, an early king of Thessaly, and his queen Enarete. ![]()
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