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King Sisyphus by some accounts was the founder of
Ephyra, a city later called Corinth, even though others claim that
he received Corinth from Medea, who was an infamous witch.
Sisyphus, the son of Aeolus and Enarete, was the proud owner of a
very large herd of cattle and his neighbor Autolycus owned a much
smaller one.
Now, Autolycus had shown great kindness to Maia, who was the
mortal mother of the god Hermes, going so far as to hide her
in his house when the goddess Hera was seeking her with bad
intent. So in gratitude Hermes had given Autolycus the magic power
of altering the form of whatever animal he chose, from white to
black, or from black to white, from a hornless animal to a horned
one, or from a cow into a bull.
Autolycus took advantage of this magic and the clever thief would
steal his neighbor Sisyphus' cattle and change their shape or
color, thus disguising them among his own. In time Sisyphus
noticed that his herd kept getting smaller while his poorer
neighbor's was increasing. He knew something was up, but he
couldn't quite put his finger on it. Naturally he suspected his
neighbor was involved but had no evidence against him.
In a stroke of genius Sisyphus decided to catch the thief by
putting a mark on the hooves of his cattle so that he could
identify it. On each of his animals he wrote the initials SIS (for
Sisyphus) and he waited for the next abduction.
As soon as more cattle disappeared, Sisyphus ordered his soldiers
to raid the cattle yard of Autolycus. Sure enough, the cattle's
hooves were lifted up and the initials SIS were evident for all to
see on five of the animals. The thief was exposed!
Autolycus loudly argued that the cattle were his, and pointed out
that Sisyphus didn't own any animals of this color or shape. He
claimed that Sisyphus or his men had come to his cattle yard at
night and marked the hooves just to frame him. A good actor, he
made a convincing case for himself.
But Autolycus' thievery did not go unpunished...Amidst all the
noise, shouting and confusion, Sisyphus took his revenge. Slipping
unnoticed into the house of his neighbor, he kidnapped Autolycus'
daughter, Anticlia, by whom he became father of Odysseus, the
Trojan War hero (some claim that Anticlia had Odysseus with a man
named Laertes.)
In all, Sisyphus had three wives and a number of children: he wed
the aforementioned Anticlia, mother of Odysseus; Merope, mother
of Glaucus, Thersander, Almus; and Ornytion; and with Tyro,
Sisyphus fathered two sons, who eventually were killed by their
mother.
However, Sisyphus is best known for
being punished in the Underworld by rolling a stone with his hands
and head in an effort to heave it over the top of a hill; but no
matter how hard he pushes, just as he gets near the top, the stone
rebounds backward again and again. How did this horrid fate come
about?
Well, Sisyphus had a big mouth. One day the river god Asopus came
by looking for his daughter, Aegina, who had gone missing. When
Asopus asked Sisyphus if he knew where his daughter was, the
tattle-tale King replied that he knew that Zeus had fallen in love
with her and had carried her away. Zeus and Aegina were to be
found in the wooded valley down below, walking arm in arm, he
said.
Needless to say this made Asopus very angry. Zeus had carelessly
left his feared thunderbolts hanging from a tree while he romanced
Aegina, so when Asopus came rushing at him with a club, the
unarmed king of the Olympians ran away startled. Escaping, Zeus
turned himself into a rock, and Asopus ran by him. After changing
back into his real form and retrieving his hanging weapons, Zeus
then hurled a thunderbolt at the charging Asopus, who walked with
a limp ever since from his wounded leg.
Enraged at the way in which Sisyphus betrayed the divine secret to
Asopus, Zeus ordered his brother Hades, feared king of the
Underworld, to arrest the king and to severely punish him. Hades
appeared before Sisyphus and commanded him to come with him. King
Sisyphus refused, saying that it was Hermes who guided the souls
to the Underworld, not Hades, and besides, it wasn't his time to
die yet. So there!
Talk about nerve! He then asked the astonished Hades what he
carried in his bag. Hades told him that they were handcuffs.
Seeing that Sisyphus was puzzled, he explained that handcuffs were
steel bracelets, chained together, which had been invented by the
skilled god of the forge, Hephaestus.
"Show me how they work", asked sly Sisyphus. But as Hades was
modeling the handcuffs, Sisyphus snapped them shut. He fastened
his dog's collar around the neck of the god and made fun of him in
his helplessness.
"Hey, these handcuffs really work, Hades!" he tormented his
captive.
Hades was not amused. He pleaded, threatened and stormed at
Sisyphus, but for an entire month he was kept prisoner. Finally
Ares, the cruel god of war, seeing that his battles had become
farces because nobody died, came to Sisyphus and threatened to
strangle him unless he released Hades...and if that didn't work,
then he would cut off his head and hide it!
Grudgingly Sisyphus unchained Hades and off they went to Tartarus
and the Underworld. On arrival, Sisyphus pleaded his case with
Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, claiming that he didn't
belong there because he wasn't dead, and besides, he hadn't been
properly ferried to the Underworld by Charon the boatman.
Persephone told him to leave, but to come back the next day
properly buried, with a coin under his tongue.
Yeah, right. Sisyphus laughed as he left the Underworld, with no
intent on returning for a long time. An infuriated Hades the next
day sent Hermes to fetch the rascal. Hermes informed King Sisyphus
that he had seen the Three Fates cutting his thread of life and
that his existence on earth was over.
Once they reached the Underworld, the Judges of the Dead devised a
unique and torturous ordeal to punish him - they ordered Sisyphus
to push a real heavy rock, practically immovable, over the top of
the hill in Tartarus. To make sure that he got the point, the rock
was shaped exactly like the one into which Zeus had changed when
he hid from Asopus.
The bad news was, the rock would roll back over the poor man just
as he would get to the top, and he would have to start all over
again. Sisyphus was doomed to endure this forever. What a drag!
I suppose you could say that Sisyphus was the original "Rock 'n
Roller"...
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