1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sisyphus |←Sistrum||1911
Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 25 |See also Sisyphus on
Wikipedia, and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.|
SISYPHUS, in Greek mythology, son of Aeolus and Enarete, and
king of Ephyra (Corinth). He was the father of the sea-god
Glaucus and (in post-Homeric legend) of Odysseus. 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
(Apollodorus iii. 4). He promoted navigation and commerce, but
was avaricious and deceitful. From Homer onwards Sisyphus was
famed as the craftiest of men. When Death came to fetch him,
Sisyphus put him into fetters, so that no one died till Ares
came and freed Death, 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 under world he
complained that his wife was neglecting her