Sisyphus, the son of the god Aeolus, the ruler of all winds, was the founder of the city of Corinth, which in ancient times was called Ephyra.
No one in all of Greece could equal Sisyphus in cunning, cunning and resourcefulness of mind. Sisyphus, thanks to his cunning, collected incalculable wealth in his Corinth; the fame of his treasures spread far.
When the gloomy god of death Tanat came to him to bring him down to the sad kingdom of Hades, Sisyphus, having already sensed the approach of the god of death, insidiously deceived the god Tanat and put him in chains. Then people stopped dying on earth. Nowhere were there large, lavish funerals; They also stopped making sacrifices to the gods of the underworld. The order established by Zeus on earth was disrupted. Then the thunderer Zeus sent the mighty god of war Ares to Sisyphus. He freed Tanat from his shackles, and Tanat plucked the soul of Sisyphus and took it to the kingdom of the shadows of the dead.
But even here the cunning Sisyphus managed to help himself. He told his wife not to bury his body or make sacrifices to the underground gods. The wife of Sisyphus obeyed her husband. Hades and Persephone waited a long time for the funeral victims. They're all gone! Finally, Sisyphus approached the throne of Hades and said to the ruler of the kingdom of the dead, Hades:
- Oh, ruler of the souls of the dead, great Hades, equal in power to Zeus, release me to the bright earth. I will command my wife to make rich sacrifices to you and I will return back to the kingdom of shadows.
Thus Sisyphus deceived the lord of Hades, and he released him to earth. Sisyphus did not return, of course, to the kingdom of Hades. He remained in his magnificent palace and feasted cheerfully, rejoicing that he alone of all mortals managed to return from the dark kingdom of shadows.
Hades was angry, and he again sent Thanatus for the soul of Sisyphus. Thanat appeared at the palace of the most cunning of mortals and found him at a luxurious feast. The god of death, hated by gods and people, extorted the soul of Sisyphus; The soul of Sisyphus now flew away forever into the kingdom of shadows.
Sisyphus bears heavy punishment in the afterlife for all the deceits, for all the deceptions that he committed on earth. He is condemned to roll a huge stone up a high, steep mountain. Sisyphus works with all his strength. Sweat pours off him from the hard work. The top is getting closer; One more effort, and Sisyphus’s work will be completed; but a stone breaks out of his hands and rolls down with a noise, raising clouds of dust. Sisyphus gets to work again.
So Sisyphus rolls the stone forever and can never reach its goal - the top of the mountain.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru