Sisyphus
The cunning king of Corinth who cheated death twice, only to be condemned to an eternity of futile labor in Tartarus — forever rolling a boulder uphill only to watch it roll back down.
The Legend of Sisyphus
Founder and king of Corinth, Sisyphus was the most cunning mortal who ever lived — a trait his grandson Odysseus inherited through Autolycus. When Zeus abducted Aegina, Sisyphus witnessed it and told her father in exchange for a spring. Zeus sent Thanatos (Death) for him, but Sisyphus tricked Death into demonstrating his chains and locked him up. Ares freed Death. Sisyphus then instructed his wife to leave his body unburied, and when Hades released him to arrange rites, he refused to return. Zeus finally dragged him to Tartarus and condemned him to push a boulder uphill for eternity — it always rolls back.
Parents
Aeolus
Children
Glaucus
Symbols
Fun Fact
Albert Camus's famous philosophical essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" reimagines the punishment as a metaphor for the human condition: "One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Sisyphus
🗡 heroKing condemned to roll a boulder eternally
Sisyphus was the craftiest mortal who ever lived — he cheated Death twice before Zeus condemned him to push a boulder uphill for eternity.
Sisyphus
🗡 heropunishment
Cleverest of mortals who cheated death twice and was condemned to push a boulder uphill in Tartarus forever.
Myrtilus
🗡 herocurse
Charioteer of King Oenomaus bribed by Pelops to sabotage his master's chariot, then murdered by Pelops and the origin of the Pelopid curse.
Odysseus
🗡 heroHero of endurance and cunning
The craftiest of all Greek heroes, whose ten-year voyage home from Troy tested every human capacity for survival and adaptation.
Busiris
🗡 heroNone recorded
Egyptian king who sacrificed strangers to Zeus until Heracles broke free and killed him
Laius
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Thebes whose attempt to cheat fate led directly to the Oedipus tragedy
Phineus
🗡 heroNone recorded
Blind Thracian king tormented by Harpies until rescued by the Argonauts
Oenomaus
🗡 heroNone recorded
A king of Pisa who killed the suitors of his daughter Hippodamia in rigged chariot races until Pelops defeated him through trickery and divine favour
Pelops
🗡 herokingship
Son of Tantalus, restored to life by the gods with an ivory shoulder, who won his bride by cheating in a chariot race and cursed his line.
Perseus
🗡 heroHero who slew Medusa
The son of Zeus and Danae who beheaded Medusa, rescued Andromeda, and founded the Perseid dynasty of Mycenae.
Palamedes
🗡 heroInventor framed by Odysseus
Palamedes was a brilliant inventor who exposed Odysseus's fake madness — Odysseus never forgave him and engineered his execution at Troy.
Pelias
🗡 herousurpation
Usurper king of Iolcus who sent Jason on the quest for the Golden Fleece hoping he would die, and was later boiled alive by his own daughters.