Who is Sisyphus?
Sisyphus is a figure in Greek mythology known for his cunning. He was the king of Ephyra and, as punishment for insulting the gods, must eternally roll a boulder up a hill in Tartarus.
What is the moral of the story of Sisyphus?
The moral of the story of Sisyphus is that there are lessons to be learned in struggling. Other moral interpretations include embracing the here and now and finding joy in the process—no matter how arduous it is.
Where is Sisyphus punished?
Sisyphus is punished in Tartarus, in the Greek underworld. The hero Odysseus witnessed Sisyphus’s punishment firsthand when he traveled to the Land of the Dead.
When was Sisyphus condemned to his eternal punishment?
Sisyphus was condemned to his eternal punishment after escaping Tartarus twice. Before that, he was only meant to be chained in Tartarus.
Why did Sisyphus keep pushing the rock?
Sisyphus had to keep pushing the rock uphill because it would roll back down to the bottom once he reached the top. Since it was his punishment, ordained by the gods, he could not stop until the rock was securely at the top.
Who did Sisyphus trick?
Sisyphus tricks Zeus, Thanatos, Persephone, and, in some mythical interpretations, Hades. His trickery allows him to escape Tartarus twice.
Table of Contents
Sisyphus in Greek Mythology
In Greek myth, Sisyphus was known for his trickery, intelligence, and blatant defiance of the gods. He traded a secret about Zeus for a freshwater spring and then outsmarted the gods when they came to punish him. He was notorious for escaping Tartarus—a deep, dark abyss in the underworld—twice, much to the chagrin of several underworld deities.
The myth of Sisyphus is recorded by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey, Plutarch in Moralia, Hyginus in Fabulae, Pausanias in Descriptions of Greece, and Apollodorus in The Library. Most of the above accounts retell the story of his eternal punishment to roll a rock uphill in the underworld.
Sisyphus was the king of Ephyra in modern-day Corinth. He was one of twelve children of King Aeolus of Aeolia (now Thessaly) and his wife, Enarete. As the king of Ephyra, Sisyphus married the Pleiad Merope, a daughter of the Titan Atlas and the Oceanid Pleione. Since Merope married a mortal and lived isolated from her sisters, she is considered the faintest of the Pleiades.
The union of Sisyphus and Merope produced the children Ornytion, Glaucus, Thersander, and Almus. By Glaucus, Sisyphus was the grandfather of the famous hero Bellerophon, the rider of Pegasus and slayer of the Chimera.
Several later myths, such as those accounted for by Latin authors Plutarch[1] and Hyginus[2], cite Sisyphus as the true father of the Achaean hero Odysseus instead of Laërtes. This alternate paternity is meant to explain where wily Odysseus got his famous quick thinking.
The Crimes of Sisyphus
Sisyphus committed three significant crimes against the Greek gods. These crimes ultimately led to his eternal punishment.
Spilling Zeus’s Tea
Sisyphus’s misfortune began when he had a chance encounter with a very large bird that was carrying off a nymph. While it was a weird sight, Sisyphus had no reason to blab about it. That is, he didn’t until the river god Asopus approached him, looking for his kidnapped daughter, Aegina. Sisyphus agreed to tell Asopus what he knew if the god would create a natural spring at the Corinthian acropolis.[3]
When a very angry Asopus showed up on the island that Zeus (under the guise of a bird) had stolen Aegina away to, he knew that Sisyphus had to have said something. Zeus successfully scared off Asopus, and once Aegina was safely hidden away, he gave the orders to have Sisyphus locked up in Tartarus, the deepest region of the underworld.
Trapping Thanatos
Once in Tartarus, Sisyphus was to be chained up by the god of death, Thanatos. Except he wasn’t. All it took was Sisyphus asking Thanatos how the infernal chains that were meant to hold him worked. When Thanatos went to show Sisyphus, the tricky mortal played the ultimate Uno reverse and trapped Thanatos instead.
With Thanatos chained, Sisyphus just . . . left, and people on earth wouldn’t die. Meaning, since death itself—that is, Thanatos—was locked up in the underworld and couldn’t leave, no one on the mortal plane was actually dying. This was an unusual defying of the natural order and humankind’s finite life cycle.
Ares, the god of bloody war, took great offense to this situation. Battles simply weren’t as thrilling when everyone came out of them alive. Sisyphus’s acts were a serious hindrance to Ares’s fun. Coincidentally, Ares freed Thanatos and hunted down Sisyphus personally so he could finally be punished.
Tricking Persephone
Just before Sisyphus died of old age, he instructed his wife, Merope, to leave his body in the public square. She did, consequently allowing Sisyphus to petition to Persephone in the underworld that he, on account of being so terribly mistreated postmortem by his wife, should be allowed to return to the land of the living. His appeal was convincing enough that Persephone was moved and allowed him to return, only so long as to admonish his wife.
Sisyphus returned to the mortal plane and gave Merope a scolding, then refused to return to the underworld altogether. Hermes, acting as a psychopomp, had to drag him back, kicking and screaming. From then on, Sisyphus’s fate was sealed: he wasn’t getting out of this situation.
The Punishment of Sisyphus
Sisyphus’s eternal punishment began after he died of old age. Sisyphus was forced to roll an enchanted boulder up a hill for escaping twice and displaying immense hubris before the gods—and insulting Zeus, to boot. Once at the top, the boulder would roll back down, and the process would begin all over again.[4]
Several ancient texts detail the punishment, all confirming that it stemmed from Sisyphus’s original insult of Zeus. His pushing of the boulder is constant, and it will roll downhill despite his greatest efforts. Thus, Sisyphus and his punishment reflect humanity’s struggle against the impossible as well as fate itself.
Symbolism and Meaning
The myth of Sisyphus embodies the eternal struggle of the human experience. This effort has been interpreted symbolically in various ways, most notably by the philosopher Albert Camus in his essay The Myth of Sisyphus[5], wherein Sisyphus’s punishment becomes the basis for the philosophy of absurdism.
Sisyphus’s tale could also encourage others to live life to the fullest. Camus gives Sisyphus credit for having a passion for life—so much so that he was punished for it. He was denied the pleasures and fulfillment of life and instead was assigned to an empty, fruitless task. However, Camus notes that after the rock rolls to the bottom of the hill, “when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock.”
The myth can also symbolize the human quest for control or mastery over the world, only to be confronted with the overwhelming power of fate or nature. Sisyphus tries to defy and deny death and consequences several times in his myth. His eventual punishment reveals the ultimate limits of human power.
Alternatively, Sisyphus can be seen as a symbol of resilience and defiance. To Albert Camus, he was an “absurd hero.” He lived life to its fullest, and Camus suggests that through him, humanity can find meaning in our struggles. Ultimately, Sisyphus’s continued effort, despite knowing the inevitable failure, perfectly demonstrates the human condition: we continue to search for meaning and purpose even in the face of absurdity.
Sisyphus’s plight in myth highlights a tension between meaning and meaninglessness, between striving for goals and accepting the inherent futility of those efforts. His name inspired “Sisyphean” tasks, which are viewed as impossible or hopeless. For example, you take out the trash, but when you return to the trash can, it is full again. In this case, you are Sisyphus, and the trash is the rock. It seems meaningless since it will never be done, but someone has to do it.
Other Myths, Art, and Modern References
The myth of Sisyphus echoes other Greek myths of eternal punishment and hubris. For example, Tantalus, a former Lydian king, is condemned to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree. When he tries to drink, the water recedes; when he tries to reach for the fruit, the branches move out of his grasp. Other similar myths include the eternal punishments of Prometheus, Erisychthon, Ixion, and the Danaïdes.
In ancient Greek artwork, Sisyphus’s punishment is front and center. He is almost always shown to be pushing the boulder in Tartarus. The imagery reinforces the idea that humankind is powerless and at the mercy of the gods; they must do what the gods will, no matter how meaningless it seems.
Sisyphus, ferrying the boulder uphill, continued to be the focus of artworks related to him throughout the twentieth century:
- Titian’s Sisyphus (1549)
- Giovan Battista Langetti’s Sisyphus (seventeenth century)
- Antonio Zanchi’s Sisyphus (1665)
- Sir Edward Burne-Jones’s Sisyphus (1870)
- Franz Stuck’s Sisyphus (1920)
The most famous modern interpretation of the myth of Sisyphus is in the aforementioned essay The Myth of Sisyphus authored by Albert Camus. On one level, the myth of Sisyphus represents the absurdity of human existence. The repetitive and futile task of pushing a boulder uphill reflects the idea that life often feels pointless as we strive for goals that seem to elude us or lead to the same struggles.
Camus argues that we must confront the absurd without resorting to false hope or nihilism. Instead, we must embrace life’s lack of meaning by creating our own significance. We all have had to push a rock up a mountain, metaphorically speaking. And often, despite our greatest efforts, we have to watch it roll back.
The absurd hero Sisyphus and his absurd task were frequently reflected upon by the Stoics, Nietzscheans, and in Existentialist philosophies. Not all writings explicitly referred to Sisyphus’s tale, but many mirrored his struggles. Camus’s essay was just the tip of an iceberg:
- Being and Nothingness (L’Être et le Néant) by Jean-Paul Satre
- Being and Time (Sein und Zeit) by Martin Heidegger
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
- Beyond Good and Evil (Jenseits von Gut und Böse) by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Lasting Impact of Sisyphus
Sisyphus, with his eternal and seemingly pointless labor, has been a central figure in exploring themes of human suffering, perseverance, and the search for humankind’s meaning. His legend serves as a poignant metaphor for life’s inherent challenges and its ups and downs.
Through ancient and modern literature, art, and philosophy, Sisyphus represents the resilience of the human spirit. He knew what fate awaited him at the bottom of the hill after his boulder rolled down, and yet, he walked down with—quite literally—a weight lifted from his shoulders. This contradiction in thought is what makes the myth of Sisyphus undeniably human: he is aware of what awaits him, yet he is tirelessly devoted to the act. His myth continues to inspire humankind’s contemplation on the nature of existence, fate, and the human condition.
It leads us to question: does Sisyphus’s eternal punishment make him a tragic, pitiable figure, or does it transform him into a symbol of defiance and resilience in the face of an indifferent universe?
References
- Plutarch. 1957. Moralia. Translated by William Helmbold. Vol. XII. N.p.: Loeb Classical Library. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Gryllus*.html.
- Grant, Mary, trans. n.d. The Myths of Hyginus. N.p.: University of Kansas Publications. Accessed March 15, 2025. https://topostext.org/work/206.
- Frazer, James George, trans. 1921. “Apollodorus, Library.” In Book 1. N.p.: Harvard University Press. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.9.3&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=1:chapter=9.
- Murray, A.T., trans. 1919. Homer, Odyssey. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D11%3Acard%3D567.
- Camus, Albert. 1991. “The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays.” Translated by Justin O’Brien. hawaii.edu. https://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil360/16.%20Myth%20of%20Sisyphus.pdf.