Corinth, on the Greek mainland near Athens, was a powerful city in ancient Greece whose ruins can still be seen today. Some sources relate how Sisyphus founded a great city called Ephyra, later renamed Corinth. Other accounts mention that the enchantress Medea gave Corinth to Sisyphus, who became its king.
One myth tells how Sisyphus gained a source of clean water for his city by making a deal with the river god Asopus. In return for information about Asopus’s daughter Aegina, whom Sisyphus had witnessed being abducted by Zeus, the river deity granted him a freshwater spring. Zeus was furious when he learned of this tale-telling and sent Thanatos, the personification of death, to take Sisyphus’s life. However, Sisyphus managed to trap Thanatos and imprison him in a dungeon. This imprisonment had a dramatic effect: death could not come for anyone, and so people stopped dying. In response, the gods dispatched Ares, god of war, to rescue Thanatos, who was once again sent to claim Sisyphus. This time, Sisyphus did die, but first he told Merope not to bury him properly. The lack of correct funeral procedure so appalled Hades, lord of the underworld, that he made Sisyphus return to the living to ensure that things were done properly. Once again, Sisyphus had proved his cunning: he refused to go back to the underworld and lived for many more years on earth.
When Sisyphus finally died, Zeus and the other gods devised a terrible punishment for his trickery. He had to push an enormous boulder up a high, steep hill. Every time he neared the top, the boulder rolled down, and Sisyphus had to start again. This torment, the best-known aspect of the Sisyphus myth, was to continue for all eternity.
World History
