Information AboutSisyphus |
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Sisyphus (, was a sinner punished in the Underworld by being set to roll a huge rock up a hill throughout Eternity . BIOGRAPHY He was the son of Aeolus and Enarete , husband of Merope , and King/Founder of Ephyra ( Corinth ), but some later sources say he was the father of Odysseus by Anticlea , just before she married her later husband, Laertes . He was said to have founded the Isthmian Games in honour of Melicertes , whose body he found lying on the shore of the Isthmus of Corinth. Sisyphus promoted navigation and commerce, but was avaricious and deceitful, killing travellers and guests in violation of the laws of hospitality. From Homer onwards, he was famed as the craftiest of men. He seduced his niece, took his brother's throne and betrayed Zeus's secrets. Zeus then ordered Hades to chain him in hell. Sisyphus slyly asked Thanatos to try the chains to show how they worked, and when he did so, Sisyhus secured them and threatened Hades. This caused an uproar, and no human could die till Ares (who was annoyed that his battles had lost its fun because his opponents won't die) intervened, freeing Thanotos and sending Sisyphus to Tartarus . However, before Sisyphus died he had told his wife that when he was dead she was not to offer the usual sacrifice. In the underworld he complained that his wife was neglecting him and persuaded Persephone , Queen of the Underworld, to allow him to go back to the upper world and ask her to perform her duty. When he got back to Corinth he refused to return and was eventually carried back to the underworld by Hermes . "SISYPHEAN TASK" OR "SISYPHEAN CHALLENGE" As a punishment from the gods for his trickery, Sisyphus was compelled to roll a huge rock up a steep hill, but before he reached the top of the hill the rock always escaped him and he had to begin again ('' Odyssey '', xi. 593). Accordingly, pointless or interminable activities are often described as ''Sisyphean''. Sisyphus was a common subject for ancient writers and was depicted by the painter Polygnotus on the walls of the Lesche at Delphi ( Pausanias x. 31). According to the Solar Theory , Sisyphus is the disk of the sun that rises every day in the east and then sinks into the west. Other scholars regard him as a personification of waves rising and falling, or of the treacherous sea. Welcker suggested that he symbolises the vain struggle of man in the pursuit of knowledge, and S. Reinach (''Revue archéologique'', 1904) that his punishment is based on a picture in which Sisyphus was represented rolling a huge stone up Acrocorinthus , symbolic of the labour and skill involved in the building of the Sisypheum . "SISYPHEAN CHALLENGE" IN LITERATURE Several Sisyphean-like challenges have made appearances in literature. Some include:
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