The stone that rolls back
In the eleventh book of the Odyssey, Odysseus tells of the dead that he saw. Three of them are men in torment, one after the other. Tityos, a son of Gaia, lies on the ground while two vultures tear his liver, and Homer gives the reason: he had offered violence to Leto. Tantalus stands in a pool and cannot drink. Sisyphus comes third.
καὶ μὴν Σίσυφον εἰσεῖδον κρατέρ’ ἄλγε’ ἔχοντα, λᾶαν βαστάζοντα πελώριον ἀμφοτέρῃσιν. ἦ τοι ὁ μὲν σκηριπτόμενος χερσίν τε ποσίν τε λᾶαν ἄνω ὤθεσκε ποτὶ λόφον· ἀλλ’ ὅτε μέλλοι ἄκρον ὑπερβαλέειν, τότ’ ἀποστρέψασκε Κραταιΐς· αὖτις ἔπειτα πέδονδε κυλίνδετο λᾶας ἀναιδής. αὐτὰρ ὅ γ’ ἂψ ὤσασκε τιταινόμενος, κατὰ δ’ ἱδρὼς ἔῤῥεεν ἐκ μελέων, κονίη δ’ ἐκ κρατὸς ὀρώρει
“Aye, and I saw Sisyphus in violent torment, seeking to raise a monstrous stone with both his hands. Verily he would brace himself with hands and feet, and thrust the stone toward the crest of a hill, but as often as he was about to heave it over the top, the weight would turn it back, and then down again to the plain would come rolling the ruthless stone. But he would strain again and thrust it back, and the sweat flowed down from his limbs, and dust rose up from his head” — Homer, Odyssey 11.593–600, tr. A. T. Murray
The first line gives the man and his state together: καὶ μὴν Σίσυφον εἰσεῖδον κρατέρ’ ἄλγε’ ἔχοντα, Aye, and I saw Sisyphus in violent torment. Murray uses the same English for Tantalus a few lines before. The second line gives the stone: λᾶαν βαστάζοντα πελώριον, seeking to raise a monstrous stone. The Greek then says only ἀμφοτέρῃσιν, with both, and Murray supplies his hands.
Then comes the work. σκηριπτόμενος χερσίν τε ποσίν τε: he would brace himself with hands and feet. λᾶαν ἄνω ὤθεσκε ποτὶ λόφον: he would thrust the stone toward the crest of a hill. Three of the verbs, ὤθεσκε and ἀποστρέψασκε and ὤσασκε, carry the ending σκε, which marks an act done again and again. Murray renders it with would and with as often as. So the passage does not tell one attempt. It tells an act that repeats.
The failure comes at the top. ἀλλ’ ὅτε μέλλοι ἄκρον ὑπερβαλέειν: but as often as he was about to heave it over the top. τότ’ ἀποστρέψασκε Κραταιΐς: the weight would turn it back. Murray renders Κραταιΐς as a force, not as a person. The el.wikisource text prints the word with a capital, as if it were a name, and the Greek text at Scaife prints it in lower case. Homer says nothing more about it. Then αὖτις ἔπειτα πέδονδε κυλίνδετο λᾶας ἀναιδής: and then down again to the plain would come rolling the ruthless stone. The last word, ἀναιδής, is the stone’s own adjective, and Murray’s word for it is ruthless.
The last two lines come back to the man. αὐτὰρ ὅ γ’ ἂψ ὤσασκε τιταινόμενος: But he would strain again and thrust it back. The sweat runs from his limbs, and κονίη δ’ ἐκ κρατὸς ὀρώρει, dust rose up from his head. For Tityos, Homer named the crime. For Sisyphus he names none. The passage gives the stone, the hill and the effort, and then Odysseus turns to the phantom of Heracles.
The secret of Aegina
Apollodorus gives the reason that Homer leaves out. He tells it in the first book of his Bibliotheke, among the descendants of Aeolus, directly after he has named the wife and the son of Sisyphus.
κολάζεται δὲ Σίσυφος ἐν Ἅιδου πέτρον ταῖς χερσὶ καὶ τῇ κεφαλῇ κυλίων, καὶ τοῦτον ὑπερβάλλειν θέλων· οὗτος δὲ ὠθούμενος ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ ὠθεῖται πάλιν εἰς τοὐπίσω. τίνει δὲ ταύτην τὴν δίκην διὰ τὴν Ἀσωποῦ θυγατέρα Αἴγιναν· ἁρπάσαντα γὰρ αὐτὴν κρύφα Δία Ἀσωπῷ μηνῦσαι ζητοῦντι λέγεται
“But Sisyphus is punished in Hades by rolling a stone with his hands and head in the effort to heave it over the top; but push it as he will, it rebounds backward. This punishment he endures for the sake of Aegina, daughter of Asopus; for when Zeus had secretly carried her off, Sisyphus is said to have betrayed the secret to Asopus, who was looking for her” — Apollodorus, Bibliotheke 1.9.3, tr. J. G. Frazer
The first sentence tells Homer’s scene again, with changes. κολάζεται δὲ Σίσυφος ἐν Ἅιδου: Sisyphus is punished in Hades. The verb names a punishment, and Homer’s lines did not. Sisyphus rolls the stone ταῖς χερσὶ καὶ τῇ κεφαλῇ, with his hands and head, where Homer’s Sisyphus braced himself with hands and feet. Apollodorus calls the stone πέτρον, not λᾶας, but its goal is the goal in Homer: ὑπερβάλλειν θέλων, in the effort to heave it over the top. It is the same verb as Homer’s ὑπερβαλέειν. The failure has no agent this time. ὠθεῖται πάλιν εἰς τοὐπίσω: it rebounds backward. In Homer a force, Κραταιΐς, turned the stone back. In Apollodorus the stone simply comes back.
The second sentence names the crime. τίνει δὲ ταύτην τὴν δίκην: This punishment he endures. The cause is διὰ τὴν Ἀσωποῦ θυγατέρα Αἴγιναν, for the sake of Aegina, daughter of Asopus. Zeus had carried her off κρύφα, secretly, and Sisyphus told her father, who was searching for her: Ἀσωπῷ μηνῦσαι ζητοῦντι. Frazer renders μηνῦσαι as betrayed the secret. So the offence is against Zeus. Sisyphus told the secret of a god to the father who wanted it.
The last word is λέγεται, is said. Apollodorus states the punishment as a fact and the cause as a report. He does not say how Sisyphus learned the secret, and he does not say what Asopus did with it.
Craftiest of men
Homer names Sisyphus in the Iliad too, in a family line. In the sixth book Glaucus, son of Hippolochus, meets Diomedes in the space between the two armies, and Diomedes asks him who he is. Glaucus answers with the generations of his family, and the first name in it is Sisyphus.
ἔστι πόλις Ἐφύρη μυχῷ Ἄργεος ἱπποβότοιο, ἔνθα δὲ Σίσυφος ἔσκεν, ὃ κέρδιστος γένετ’ ἀνδρῶν, Σίσυφος Αἰολίδης· ὁ δ’ ἄρα Γλαῦκον τέκεθ’ υἱόν, αὐτὰρ Γλαῦκος τίκτεν ἀμύμονα Βελλεροφόντην
“There is a city Ephyre in the heart of Argos, pasture-land of horses, and there dwelt Sisyphus that was craftiest of men, Sisyphus, son of Aeolus; and he begat a son Glaucus; and Glaucus begat peerless Bellerophon” — Homer, Iliad 6.152–155, tr. A. T. Murray
Homer gives Sisyphus a place, a quality and a father. The place is Ἐφύρη, which lies μυχῷ Ἄργεος ἱπποβότοιο, in the heart of Argos, pasture-land of horses, and the verb is ἔσκεν, dwelt. The quality is ὃ κέρδιστος γένετ’ ἀνδρῶν, that was craftiest of men. κέρδιστος is a superlative, and Murray’s craftiest keeps it one. Then the name comes a second time, with the father in it: Σίσυφος Αἰολίδης, Sisyphus, son of Aeolus.
The line ends in two generations. Sisyphus begat Γλαῦκον, Glaucus, and Glaucus begat ἀμύμονα Βελλεροφόντην, peerless Bellerophon. Later in the same speech, Bellerophon has three children, Isander, Hippolochus and Laodameia, and Hippolochus is the father of the Glaucus who speaks. So the speaker carries the name of the son of Sisyphus. He ends by calling his fathers far the noblest in Ephyre and in wide Lycia.
Apollodorus sets out the same family. In his list of the children of Aeolus and Enarete, daughter of Deimachus, Sisyphus is the second of seven sons: Cretheus, Sisyphus, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Magnes and Perieres. Later in the same book he comes back to him.
Σίσυφος δὲ ὁ Αἰόλου κτίσας Ἐφύραν τὴν νῦν λεγομένην Κόρινθον γαμεῖ Μερόπην τὴν Ἄτλαντος
“Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, founded Ephyra, which is now called Corinth, and married Merope, daughter of Atlas” — Apollodorus, Bibliotheke 1.9.3, tr. J. G. Frazer
Homer’s verb was ἔσκεν, dwelt. Apollodorus’s verb is κτίσας, founded. In his account Sisyphus does not only live in the city. He makes it. Apollodorus also adds what the city became: τὴν νῦν λεγομένην Κόρινθον, which is now called Corinth. Murray writes the name Ephyre and Frazer writes Ephyra, after the Greek forms Ἐφύρη and Ἐφύραν. Neither passage calls Sisyphus a king. The same sentence gives him a wife, Μερόπην τὴν Ἄτλαντος, Merope, daughter of Atlas.
Out of Hades
The elegies of Theognis use Sisyphus in an argument about wealth. For the many, the poem says, there is one virtue, and it is to be rich. Nothing else is of use: not the good sense of Rhadamanthys himself, and not more knowledge than Sisyphus, son of Aeolus. Then the poem stops to say why Sisyphus is the measure of knowledge.
ὅστε καὶ ἐξ Ἀίδεω πολυϊδρίῃσιν ἀνῆλθεν πείσας Περσεφόνην αἱμυλίοισι λόγοις
“even he who by his cunning came-up-again from Hades, after having persuaded Proserpine by wily words” — Theognis, Elegies 703–704, tr. J. Banks
Two phrases carry the craft. πολυϊδρίῃσιν, by his cunning, is how he comes back, and αἱμυλίοισι λόγοις, by wily words, is how he persuades. The verb is ἀνῆλθεν: he came up ἐξ Ἀίδεω, from Hades. The one he persuades is Περσεφόνην, Persephone, and Banks calls her by her Latin name, Proserpine. The lines do not say what Sisyphus told her.
The poem then makes the feat larger. Persephone, it says, gives forgetfulness to mortals and harms their minds. No other man has devised such a return, no man whom the black cloud of death has covered, who has come to the shadowy place of the dead and passed the dark gates that hold in the souls of the dead against their will. But Sisyphus, the hero, came back even from there to the light of the sun, by his own shrewdness.
The argument still goes against him. The list continues with the tongue of Nestor and the speed of the Harpies, and then it comes back to wealth. Theognis does not mention the stone, and Homer does not mention the return. None of these texts says whether the return came before the punishment or after it.
The Isthmian games
Apollodorus names Sisyphus once more, in his third book, at the end of the story of Ino. Hera drove Ino and her husband Athamas mad. Athamas, a brother of Sisyphus among the seven sons of Aeolus, hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed him. Ino threw Melicertes into a boiling cauldron, and then she sprang into the deep with the dead child. She is called Leucothea, and the boy is called Palaemon. The next sentence turns to the honour of the boy.
ἐτέθη δὲ ἐπὶ Μελικέρτῃ ὁ ἀγὼν τῶν Ἰσθμίων, Σισύφου θέντος
“And the Isthmian games were instituted by Sisyphus in honor of Melicertes” — Apollodorus, Bibliotheke 3.4.3, tr. J. G. Frazer
The games are ὁ ἀγὼν τῶν Ἰσθμίων, and they are held ἐπὶ Μελικέρτῃ, in honor of Melicertes. The sentence uses one verb twice. The games ἐτέθη, were instituted, and the last two words, Σισύφου θέντος, name the man who instituted them. Melicertes was the son of a brother of Sisyphus, so these are games for a dead nephew. In the first book Sisyphus founds a city, κτίσας, and here he founds games, θέντος. Apollodorus gives no other reason for them.