Sisyphus was a proud man who ruled the city of Corinth. But he is not remembered for his reign. Sisyphus is famous for another reason; he was one of the few people ever to return from the underworld. Brilliant and notorious, Sisyphus was known everywhere for his avarice and deceit. Sisyphus seduced his own niece, stole his brother’s throne, and often killed his own guests! In the eyes of the gods, however, the biggest crime among all his terrible deeds was his betrayal of Zeus.
Sisyphus was looking for a new source of water for his city when he saw an opportunity. Aegina, the daughter of Asopus, a river god, had secretly left home to be with her true love, Zeus. The couple soon started living together in the wooded valley close to Corinth, and they were often seen walking hand in hand near the outskirts of the city. When the angry river god came looking for his daughter, Sisyphus made a deal with him. He agreed to divulge Aegina’s whereabouts in exchange for a new supply of water for his city. Asopus agreed to the proposal and immediately created a beautiful spring behind the temple of Aphrodite. After seeing this wonderful water source, Sisyphus kept his word and told Asopus that Zeus had fallen in love with Aegina and taken her away. This news enraged Asopus, for he had always been loyal to Zeus.
Asopus quickly found Zeus and Aegina and tried to exact his revenge. In order to kiss Aegina more comfortably, Zeus had carelessly left his thunderbolts hanging in a tree. So when Asopus rushed at him with a club, the unarmed king of the gods could only run away. Fleeing through the forest, Zeus turned himself into a rock, fooling Asopus, who ran past him. This gave Zeus a chance to change back into his divine form and return to the tree. There, he retrieved his weapons and promptly flung a thunderbolt that struck Asopus in the leg. From that day on, Asopus walked with a limp.
Furious that Sisyphus had betrayed him, Zeus ordered Thanatos, the god of death, to bring Sisyphus to the underworld, where he would be severely punished. Sisyphus, however, was able to scheme his way out of this fate. When Thanatos came to make the arrest, Sisyphus noticed that he had brought a pair of metal bracelets joined by a chain, a clever new device to restrain prisoners, invented by the skilled Hephaestus. Sisyphus had never seen bracelets like these before. Pretending to be honored by the presence of such a high-ranking god, Sisyphus craftily told him how much he admired the bracelets and asked Thanatos to show him how they worked. Thanatos demonstrated on himself, and as he was doing so, Sisyphus snapped the bracelets shut. Then he quickly fastened a collar around the helpless god’s neck. As the god pleaded, yelled, and threatened him, Sisyphus mocked Thanatos’ surprise and outrage. Triumphant, Sisyphus dragged the god home and locked him in a closet.
The imprisonment of Thanatos caused chaos throughout the world. While he was away from his duties, no one could die. The old, the sick, and the wounded were forced to endure in pain and misery. People could not slaughter animals for meat, and they began to starve. All of the gods banded together against Sisyphus and threatened to make life so miserable for him that he would wish to die too. Still, they could not convince him to let Thanatos go; nor could they find the god to release him. After a month of this turmoil, the god of war, Ares, arrived at Sisyphus’ home and finally liberated Thanatos. As soon as he was free, the god angrily decreed that Sisyphus would spend eternity suffering in the underworld, starting that very day. The devious Sisyphus, however, had other plans.
Sisyphus told his wife not to bury his body, and then he left for the underworld, apparently ready to accept his fate. As soon as he arrived, he sought out Persephone, the queen of the underworld. He explained to her that his wife had humiliated him and denied him an honorable death by not burying him or offering the necessary sacrifices. Because she had not buried him with a coin under his tongue as was customary, he could not pay the ferryman, Charon, for passage across the River Styx. For these reasons, he claimed that he did not belong in the land of the dead. Sisyphus argued that he must be allowed to return to Corinth to avenge this disgrace and arrange for a proper burial.
The kindhearted Persephone deliberated for a while and finally decided to let Sisyphus do as he asked. She stipulated that he must return the next day properly buried, with a coin under his tongue. Feigning sincerity, Sisyphus promised he would return, but as soon as he left the underworld, Sisyphus began to congratulate himself on regaining his life aboveground. Confident that he had escaped death, Sisyphus gathered his family and friends and bragged about how he had imprisoned Thanatos in a closet and tricked Persephone into letting him return to the world of the living.
The cunning Sisyphus lived happily for many more years, but despite all his efforts, even he could not escape the inevitable. When Sisyphus finally died as an old man, he was dragged back to the underworld. There, he was met by the three judges of the dead, who assigned souls to their rightful places in the underworld. The judges did not look very kindly on lawbreakers, especially those who committed crimes against the gods. They decided to create a punishment that would fit Sisyphus’ terrible trickery: Sisyphus would be condemned for all eternity to roll a huge boulder up a steep hill.
It was a terrible punishment. The great boulder was very heavy, and pushing it only a few steps required great strength and stamina. Even worse, every time Sisyphus struggled up the hill, the rock slipped from his grasp just before he reached the top and rolled back down. Sisyphus was then compelled to return to the bottom of the hill and start pushing the rock up the hill again. This was Sisyphus’ eternal fate—to push the rock up the hill over and over, only to watch it roll down again. Forced to suffer an eternity of toil and frustration, Sisyphus was finally punished by the gods for his arrogance.