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Sisyphus (also Sísyphos or Sisuphos), in Greek mythology, was the son of Aeolus and Enarete, husband of Merope, and King/Founder of Ephyra ( Corinth). According to some (later) sources, he was the father of Odysseus by Anticlea, before she married her later husband, Laertes.

He was the father of the Corinthian king Glaucus by Merope. 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.

He promoted navigation and commerce, but was avaricious and deceitful. He killed travellers and wayfarers. From Homer onwards, Sisyphus was famed as the craftiest of men. When Thanatos came to fetch him, Sisyphus put him into fetters, so that no one died till Ares came, freed Thanatos, and delivered Sisyphus into his custody.

But Sisyphus was not yet at the end of his resources. For before he died he told his wife that when he was gone she was not to offer the usual sacrifice to the dead. So in the underworld he complained that his wife was neglecting her duty, and he persuaded Hades to allow him to go back to the upper world and expostulate with her. But when he got back to Corinth he positively refused to return, until forcibly carried off by HermesDionysus, by Praxiteles Hermes (Greek: 'pile of marker stones'), in Greek mythology, is the god of travelers, shepherds, land travel, orators, literature, cunning, poets, athletics, weights and measures, and thieves, and the messenger from the gods to hum.

In the underworld Sisyphus was compelled to roll a big stone up a steep hill; but before it reached the top of the hill the stone always rolled down, and Sisyphus had to begin all over again ( OdysseyFor the cable TV channel formerly called Odyssey, see the Hallmark Channel. The Odyssey is the second of the two great Greek epic poems ascribed to Homer, the first being the Iliad''. The book follows the events of the voyage of Odysseus, king of Ithaca,, xi. 593). As a result of this, pointless, interminable activities are described as Sisyphean. The reason for this punishment is not mentioned in Homer, and is obscure; according to some, he had revealed the designs of the gods to mortals, according to others, he was in the habit of attacking and murdering travellers. The subject was a commonplace of ancient writers, and was depicted by the painter PolygnotusPolygnotus was a Greek painter in the middle of the 5th century BC, son of Aglaophon. He was a native of Thasos, but was adopted by the Athenians, and admitted to their citizenship. He painted for them in the time of Cimon a picture of the taking of Ilium on the walls of the Lesche at DelphiThis article is about the city of Delphi. For other meanings, see the disambiguation page on "Delphi". Delphi is an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece. In ancient times it was the site of the Delphic Oracle, dedicated to the god Apollo. Delph ( PausaniasPausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A. who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, x. 31).

According to the solar theory, Sisyphus is the disk of the sun that rises every day and then sinks below the horizon. Others see in him a personification of the waves rising to a height and then suddenly falling, or of the treacherous sea. It is suggested by WelckerFriedrich Gottlieb Welcker ( 1784- 1868), German philologist and archaeologist, was born at Grunberg in the grand duchy of Hesse. Having studied classical philology at the university of Giessen, he was appointed ( 1803) master in the high school, an offic that the legend is symbolic of the vain struggle of man in the pursuit of knowledge. S. Reinach (Revue archéologique, 1904) finds the origin of the story in 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 . When a distinction was made between the souls in the underworld, Sisyphus was supposed to be rolling up the stone perpetually as a punishment for some offence committed on Earth, and various reasons were invented to account for it.