Sisyphus

Sisyphus was the founder and first king of Ephyra, later called Corinth, a son of Aeolus and the craftiest of men according to Homer (Iliad 6.152–153). He was punished in the underworld by having to push a huge stone up a slope, only to see it roll back down each time. His father Aeolus is the ancestor of the Aeolians, not the keeper of the winds in the Odyssey.

Parents, Wife and Children

Apollodorus lists Sisyphus among the seven sons of Aeolus and Enarete, a daughter of Deimachus (Library 1.7.3); Hesiod likewise names “clever Sisyphus” among the sons of Aeolus (Catalogue of Women, fragment). He founded Ephyra, which is now called Corinth, and married Merope, daughter of Atlas, one of the Pleiades (Library 1.9.3, 3.10.1). Their son Glaucus was the father of Bellerophon (Iliad 6.154–155). Pausanias adds three more sons: Ornytion, Thersander and Almus (2.4.3, 9.34.7, 9.34.10), and says that when Medea left Corinth she handed the kingdom to Sisyphus (2.3.11). Euripides calls Odysseus a son of Sisyphus (Cyclops 104; Iphigenia in Aulis 524), a reputation for shrewdness which suited the family.

Founder of the Isthmian Games

According to Pausanias, the boy Melicertes was brought ashore at the Isthmus by a dolphin; Sisyphus found him lying there, buried him and founded the Isthmian games in his honour (2.1.3; also Apollodorus, Library 3.4.3). Pausanias reports that Sisyphus was himself buried on the Isthmus, though the grave was kept so secret that few Corinthians knew where it was (2.2.2). In Strabo’s day the ruins of a marble building called the Sisypheion could still be seen on the slope below the spring Peirene (8.6.21).

Sisyphus and Aegina

The sources agree on one offence against Zeus. Zeus had secretly carried off Aegina, daughter of the river Asopus. Asopus came to Corinth searching for her, and Sisyphus told him that the abductor was Zeus (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.3, 3.12.6). Pausanias gives the price: Sisyphus would not speak until Asopus gave him a spring on the Acrocorinthus, and when the spring was granted he informed; the water behind the temple of Aphrodite on the summit was said to be that gift, and some thought it was the same as Peirene (2.5.1). Apollodorus says that Sisyphus is punished in Hades for this betrayal (1.9.3), and Pausanias agrees (2.5.1). Hyginus gives a different reason, impiety, without further detail (Fabulae 60). Homer does not state any cause.

Gods’ Revenge

Sisyphus and Thanatos

A famous story told how Sisyphus was cunning enough to bind Death himself. Pherecydes, as quoted in the ancient commentary on Iliad 6.153, says that when Zeus learned of the betrayal of Aegina he sent Thanatos (Death) against Sisyphus; Sisyphus saw him coming and threw him into strong chains, so that nobody died until Ares set Death free and handed Sisyphus over to him.

Sisyphus and Hades

The same fragment of Pherecydes continues the story below the earth. Because no offerings were made to his shade, Hades learned what had happened and sent Sisyphus back to the upper world to rebuke his wife; but once he had reached Corinth he did not return. Only when he died of old age was he brought down again, and then he was made to roll a stone in Tartarus so that he could never run away a second time.

Sisyphus and Merope

Merope was the key to the trick. Before he died, Sisyphus told her not to make the customary offerings to the dead for him, and it was this omission that moved Hades to send him up again (Pherecydes, in the scholia on Iliad 6.153). Merope herself was one of the seven Pleiades, the only one who married a mortal; the Roman poets say that she alone hides her light in the sky for shame of her marriage, which is why only six of the sisters can be seen (Ovid, Fasti 4.175–176; Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21).

Eternal Punishment

The Stone of Sisyphus

The earliest account is in the Odyssey. Odysseus sees Sisyphus in the underworld “seeking to raise a monstrous stone with both his hands”; he braces with hands and feet and pushes it toward the top of the hill, but just as it is about to pass over, its weight turns it back and it rolls down again to the plain, so that he begins again while the sweat pours off him (Odyssey 11.593–600). It is a single stone, not several. Apollodorus says he rolls the stone with his hands and head, but however he pushes, it rebounds backward (Library 1.9.3). Euripides has Heracles, newly restored to his senses, say that he does not see “Sisyphus with his stone” (Heracles 1104), and Pausanias describes him in Polygnotus’ painting of the underworld at Delphi, trying his hardest to push the rock up a cliff (10.31.10). Lucian lists him beside Tantalus and Ixion among the punished (Menippus 14).

Sisyphus Sources

Homer, Iliad 6.152–155 and Odyssey 11.593–600; Hesiod, Catalogue of Women (fragment on the sons of Aeolus); Pherecydes, fragment on Sisyphus preserved in the scholia on Iliad 6.153; Euripides, Cyclops 104, Iphigenia in Aulis 524 and Heracles 1104; Apollodorus, Library 1.7.3, 1.9.3, 3.4.3, 3.10.1, 3.12.6; Hyginus, Fabulae 60 and Astronomica 2.21; Ovid, Fasti 4.175–176; Strabo 8.6.21; Pausanias 2.1.3, 2.2.2, 2.3.11, 2.4.3, 2.5.1, 9.34.7, 9.34.10, 10.31.10; Lucian, Menippus 14.

See Also: Aeolus, Enarete, Merope, Glaucus, Zeus, Asopus, Thanatos, Ares, Hades, Tantalus, Bellerophon, Odysseus