Sisyphus’ chief personal attribute was his cunning. But Sisyphus’ most common epithets evoked his craftiness through such Greek words as kerdiōn and aiolomētēs (meaning simply “crafty”). He was sometimes referred to as “Aeolides,” meaning “son of Aeolus”-a reference to his father, the Thessalian king Aeolus. Sisyphus only appears occasionally in surviving ancient literature and therefore only has a few epithets. 1 More recently, other scholars have suggested some connection with the Greek word sophos, meaning “clever” or “wise.” 2 # Pronunciation In 1906, German scholar Otto Gruppe suggested that it was derived from the Greek word sisys, meaning “goatskin”-a reference, supposedly, to a rain-charm that employed goatskins. The etymology of the name “Sisyphus” (Greek Σίσυφος, translit.
Sisyphus was thus forced to endlessly repeat the same grueling task for all eternity. For acting against the will of the gods, Sisyphus received a terrible punishment in the afterlife: he was sent to Tartarus, roughly the Greek equivalent of hell, where he was forced to roll a giant boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down once he reached the top. In the most common version of the myth, Sisyphus managed to cheat Death and thereby extend his life (the details of how he accomplished this vary across different sources).Įventually, however, Sisyphus did die. He was famously cunning, but unfortunately also deceitful and impious. Sisyphus was a Greek king usually associated with Corinth. In some traditions, Merope helped Sisyphus in his ill-fated scheme to cheat Death. Sisyphus was said to have married Merope, a daughter of Atlas.
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