Sisyphus
Cleverest of mortals who cheated death twice and was condemned to push a boulder uphill in Tartarus forever.
The Legend of Sisyphus
He tricked Death itself — chained Thanatos so no mortal could die, then talked his way out of the Underworld after dying. Sisyphus was king of Corinth and the craftiest human alive. He chained Thanatos (Death) himself, so no one could die until Ares freed Death. Then, when he did die, he instructed his wife to leave his body unburied. In the Underworld, he convinced Persephone to let him return to punish his wife for the disrespect — then simply refused to die again. Hermes had to drag him back. His punishment is the eternal boulder: he pushes it to the top of a hill, it rolls back down, repeat forever. Camus made him the existentialist hero: one must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Parents
Aeolus
Children
Glaucus
Symbols
Fun Fact
Camus's essay The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) argues Sisyphus is happy — the struggle itself is enough.
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
🗡 heroKing condemned to roll a boulder forever
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.
Ixion
🗡 heropunishment
First human murderer of kin, who attempted to seduce Hera and was bound to an eternally spinning wheel of fire.
Erysichthon
🗡 heropunishment
A Thessalian king cursed by Demeter with insatiable hunger after destroying her sacred grove — he devoured everything he owned, then consumed himself.
Heracles
🗡 heroGreatest of all Greek heroes
The son of Zeus and Alcmene who performed twelve impossible labours and was the only hero to achieve full godhood after death.
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.
Tantalus
🗡 heroKing punished with eternal hunger and thirst
A king who offended the gods by serving them his own son as a meal. His punishment in Tartarus — standing in water that recedes when he tries to drink, beneath fruit that pulls away when he reaches for it — gave us the word "tantalize."
Phineus
🗡 heroprophecy, punishment
A blind Thracian king and prophet punished by Zeus for revealing divine secrets, tormented by Harpies until rescued by the Argonauts.
Busiris
🗡 heroNone recorded
Egyptian king who sacrificed strangers to Zeus until Heracles broke free and killed him
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.
Ajax
🗡 heromadness
Ajax the Great's descent into madness and suicide after losing the contest for Achilles's armor to Odysseus.
Bellerophon
🗡 heroThe hero who tamed Pegasus
The Corinthian hero who tamed the winged horse Pegasus and slew the Chimera, but fell from heaven when he tried to reach Olympus.