Source Verification: Sisyphus

Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.

What the Sources Attest

What is Sisyphus the myth about?

It is about a clever king who crossed the gods and was punished forever. Homer's Iliad calls Sisyphus of Ephyre the craftiest of men. Homer's Odyssey shows him in Hades, pushing a monstrous stone toward a hilltop, only for it to roll back each time. Apollodorus and Pausanias explain the punishment: he told the river god Asopus that Zeus had carried off his daughter Aegina. The elegies of Theognis add that he talked Persephone into letting him return from Hades.

Source: Homer, Odyssey 11.593-600

Why did Sisyphus push the rock?

Because it was his punishment in Hades, and the stone never stays at the top. Homer's Odyssey describes the work but gives no reason. Each time Sisyphus nears the crest, the weight turns the stone back and he must begin again. Apollodorus says he is punished for Aegina, daughter of Asopus: when Zeus secretly carried her off, Sisyphus betrayed the secret to her father. Pausanias tells the same story, adding that Sisyphus traded the information for a spring on Acrocorinth. He hedges it: if anyone believes the story.

Source: Apollodorus, Library 1.9.3

Is Sisyphus related to Odysseus?

Not in Homer. Homer's Odyssey calls Odysseus the son of Laertes and names his mother as Anticleia, daughter of Autolycus. Later writers make Sisyphus his real father, usually as an insult. Sophocles's Philoctetes calls Odysseus the offspring of Sisyphus that was bought by Laertes. In Euripides's Iphigenia at Aulis, Agamemnon calls him the son of Sisyphus. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Ajax says Odysseus comes from the blood of Sisyphus and resembles him in theft and fraud. None of these speakers is a friend of Odysseus.

Source: Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 524-526

What is the moral of the story of Sisyphus?

No ancient author states one outright, and the sources draw different lessons. In Homer's Odyssey, Sisyphus is one of the great sinners Odysseus sees punished in Hades, beside Tityus and Tantalus. Apollodorus and Pausanias make his crime informing on Zeus, so exposing a god's secret carries a price. Theognis uses him differently: in his elegies, most people value wealth above everything, even above the wit of Sisyphus, who came back from Hades. The best-known modern moral, that one must imagine Sisyphus happy, is Albert Camus's, from 1942.

Source: Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.5.1

What is Sisyphus a metaphor for?

Today he stands for endless, futile labor: a task that must be started again the moment it seems finished. That image comes from Homer's Odyssey, where the stone rolls back each time it nears the crest. In antiquity his name also stood for cunning. Homer's Iliad calls him the craftiest of men, and Pindar calls him shrewd like a god. Tragedians called Odysseus a son of Sisyphus to call him a cheat. Albert Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) made him the absurd hero, a modern reading, not an ancient one.

Source: Pindar, Olympian Ode 13.49-54

Where Accounts Differ

why Sisyphus was punished
how Sisyphus escaped death
whether Sisyphus was Odysseus's father
which Aeolus fathered Sisyphus
whether Homer tells of Death in chains

The sources give different reasons for the punishment. Homer (Odyssey 11.593-600) describes the stone and names no crime. Apollodorus (Library 1.9.3, 3.12.6) says Sisyphus revealed to Asopus that Zeus had carried off Aegina. Pausanias (2.5.1) adds that he traded the secret for a spring on Acrocorinth, and reports the punishment only if anyone believes the story.
Sisyphus's escapes from death are separate traditions. Theognis (699-718 in Edmonds's numbering) says he persuaded Persephone and returned from Hades. The chaining of Death, freed by Ares, is not in the Homer, Apollodorus or Pausanias passages cited here; Frazer's note to Apollodorus 1.9.3 traces it to a scholiast on Iliad 6.153.
Odysseus's father is disputed. Homer (Odyssey 11.405-406, 11.84-86) makes him the son of Laertes and Anticleia. Sophocles (Ajax 189-190; Philoctetes 416-418), Euripides (Iphigenia at Aulis 524-526) and Ovid (Metamorphoses 13.31-33) call him a son or descendant of Sisyphus, always in the mouths of hostile or wary speakers.
The Aeolus who fathers Sisyphus is the son of Hellen in Apollodorus (Library 1.7.3). He should not be confused with the keeper of the winds whom Odysseus visits in the Odyssey.
Camus (The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942) attributes the chaining of Death to Homer. The Homer passages on Sisyphus cited here (Iliad 6.152-155, Odyssey 11.593-600) do not contain it.

Sources

Primary sources

Homer, Iliad 6.152-155
Homer, Odyssey 11.593-600
Homer, Odyssey 11.84-86
Homer, Odyssey 11.405-406
Apollodorus, Library 1.7.3
Apollodorus, Library 1.9.3
Apollodorus, Library 3.4.3
Apollodorus, Library 3.12.6
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.1.3
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.2.2
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.3.11
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.5.1
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.31.10
Pindar, Olympian Ode 13.49-54
Sophocles, Ajax 189-190
Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 524-531
Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.460
Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.465-467
Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.44
Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.25-26
Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.31-33