Mythology and Art: Sisyphus in Tartarus
Created | Updated Jan 26, 2014
Another mythological gem from our artist.
Sisyphus in Tartarus
A friendly but not particularly helpful demon arrives ... Sisyphus is not impressed!
Sisyphus was a king in ancient Greece. He was a scaly character ... he killed travellers and guests, which was an affront to the gods, especially Zeus, who was the protector of sacred hospitality. Sisyphus also wanted to take over the throne of his brother Salmoneus. He seduced Salmoneus' daughter Tyro, but she slew herself and her uncle's children when she learned of his plans.
Sisyphus further enraged Zeus by telling the river god Aesopus where his daughter Aegina was ... she'd been abducted by Zeus (he was into that sort of thing, but because he was a god it was apparently OK).
Sisyphus was then sent to Tartarus, the place of eternal punishment of the ancient Greeks. He was supposed to be chained by Thanatos, the god of death. Sisyphus asked Thanatos to explain to him how the chains worked ... and managed to chain Thanatos instead, and escaped!
Because Thanatos was now chained, nobody and nothing could die any more! This was a big problem, especially for Ares, the god of war. With no-one able to die, warfare went nowhere at all. So Ares went down to unchain Thanatos.
At this point Sisyphus apparently was not dead yet ... but in due course he did die. But he had another trick. He had arranged with his wife to throw his naked corpse in the middle of the town square. When he arrived in Hades, he complained to Persephone, Hades' queen, that the proper funeral rites weren't performed for him. He made a promise to Persephone to return, and she let him go back to the living world to see to it that he was properly buried. Of course, once back there, he refused to return to Hades.
By now the gods were just about fed up with Sisyphus. This time, he was sent back to Tartarus, and now with a task suited to his aspirations. He had to push a heavy boulder up a mountain. Just before the boulder reached the top, it would always roll back down again, and Sisyphus had to start over. This would go on and on and on ... forever! So Sisyphus would be punished with the ultimate pointless, difficult, frustrating task.
At least, from all the effort he built the most chiselled physique in all of Tartarus!
