Sisyphus
Family: Greek mythology · Role: mythical king · First appears: Book 2 · Chapter 1
At the Isthmus, Sisyphus found Melicerta dead, buried him, and established the Isthmian games in his honour. He was also buried there; a few Corinthians who had been his contemporaries knew the site of his tomb. Eventually, Medea left and handed the kingdom over to him.
At Acro-Corinthus, Asopus gave Sisyphus water after Sisyphus revealed that Zeus had carried off Ægina, Asopus’s daughter. Sisyphus had sons Glaucus, Ornytion, Thersander, Almus and Olmus. In Book 10, he is described laboriously rolling a stone up a hill.
Relationship record
Life events
- Sisyphus found Melicerta dead, buried him, and established the Isthmian games.(Book 2 · Chapter 1 · 📍 the Isthmus)
- With: Melicerta
- “and Sisyphus, finding him lying dead on the shore, buried him at the Isthmus, and established the Isthmian games in honour of him.”
- Sisyphus was buried at the Isthmus, where contemporaries knew his tomb’s location.(Book 2 · Chapter 2 · 📍 the Isthmus)
- “But that Sisyphus was buried at the Isthmus, and indeed the very site of his tomb, a few Corinthians who were his contemporaries know.”
- Medea leaves and hands the kingdom over to Sisyphus.(Book 2 · Chapter 3)
- With: Medea
- “Eventually Medea herself went away too, and handed over the kingdom to Sisyphus.”
- Asopus gives Sisyphus water after Sisyphus reveals that Zeus carried off Ægina.(Book 2 · Chapter 5 · 📍 Acro-Corinthus)
- Sisyphus laboriously rolled a stone up a hill.(Book 10 · Chapter 31)
- “Next to Callisto and the other women with her is a hill, up which Sisyphus the son of Æolus is laboriously rolling a stone.”
Book 2 · Chapter 1
- with Melicerta (Sisyphus buried the dead Melicerta.) “Sisyphus, finding him lying dead on the shore, buried him at the Isthmus”
Book 2 · Chapter 2
- with Nestor (Sisyphus did not show Neleus’s tomb to Nestor.) “As to Neleus they say that his tomb was not even shewn to Nestor by Sisyphus: for it was to be unknown to all alike.”
- with Eumelus (Eumelus's poems contain an account concerning Sisyphus's tomb.) “But the tombs of Sisyphus and Neleus, (for they say that Neleus came to Corinth, and died there of some disease, and was buried near the Isthmus), no one could find from the account in the poems of Eumelus.”
Book 2 · Chapter 3
- with Medea (interaction) “Medea herself went away too, and handed over the kingdom to Sisyphus.”
Book 2 · Chapter 4
- child: Glaucus (son of Sisyphus) “And Sisyphus had as sons not only Glaucus the father of Bellerophon, but also Ornytion, and Thersander, and Almus.”
- child: Ornytion “And Sisyphus had as sons not only Glaucus the father of Bellerophon, but also Ornytion, and Thersander, and Almus.”
- child: Thersander (son of Sisyphus) “And Sisyphus had as sons not only Glaucus the father of Bellerophon, but also Ornytion, and Thersander, and Almus.”
- child: Almus “And Sisyphus had as sons not only Glaucus the father of Bellerophon, but also Ornytion, and Thersander, and Almus.”
Book 2 · Chapter 5
- with Asopus (Asopus gave the fountain on Acro-Corinthus to Sisyphus.) “And the fountain behind the temple is they say the gift of Asopus to Sisyphus:”
- with Zeus (Sisyphus withheld information from Zeus in exchange for water.) “for he, though he knew that Zeus had carried off Ægina the daughter of Asopus, refused to tell him unless he would give him this water on Acro-Corinthus.”
Book 6 · Chapter 20
- child: Glaucus (son of Sisyphus) (Sisyphus is Glaucus's father.) “There is also at the Isthmus a Taraxippus, Glaucus the son of Sisyphus”
Book 9 · Chapter 17
- child: Ornytion “Phocus the son of Ornytion the son of Sisyphus”
Book 9 · Chapter 24
- child: Olmus (Sisyphus is identified as Olmus's father.) “The traditions I have heard about Hyettus the Argive, and Olmus the son of Sisyphus, I shall relate when I come to Orchomenus.”
Book 9 · Chapter 34
- siblings with Athamas (father of Phrixus) “Thersander, the son of Sisyphus, who was brother of Athamas.”
- child: Almus (Sisyphus is the parent of Almus.) “When Almus the son of Sisyphus came to him”
- child: Thersander (son of Sisyphus) “Thersander, the son of Sisyphus”
Book 10 · Chapter 4
- with Phocus (son of Ornytion) (Sisyphus was Phocus's grandfather.) “others Phocus (the son of Ornytion and grandson of Sisyphus).”
Book 10 · Chapter 30
- with Thersander (son of Sisyphus) (Sisyphus was Thersander's grandfather.) “the son of Thersander and grandson of Sisyphus”
- with Prœtus (interaction) “the son of Thersander and grandson of Sisyphus”
Book 10 · Chapter 31
- parent: Æolus “Sisyphus the son of Æolus is laboriously rolling a stone.”
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Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.