![]() He is often watched over by Persephone and/or Hades, the rulers of the Underworld, and sometimes the fearsome guard-dog Kerberos is present. Some of the vases on which the famous sinner was depicted may have been destined for graves, but it’s difficult to say whether there was any “moralizing” intent in the painters’ choice of scene. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license Image © The Trustees of the British Museum. and suggest that, if nothing else, his punishment offered a subject that could be presented clearly and simply.Īttic neck-amphora, 510–500 B.C., Greek, attributed to the Leagros Group. Images of him pushing his load up a rocky outcrop or hill occur on a number of Athenian black-figure vases from around 530 B.C. Depicting Sisyphusįrom what survives in Greek art, it seems that Sisyphus was the most popular of the sinners in the Underworld. ![]() ![]() So it’s to be expected that suffering was imagined in such futile and soul-destroying terms. Ancient Greek society was, in essence, an agricultural one, and entailed plenty of rigorous labor. Unendurable punishment was conceived not only as excruciating bodily torment (so Tityos, who had to endure having his liver being torn out by two vultures-forever), but also as unremitting drudgery. Further, Sisyphus’ fate says much about the ancient Greek mindset. Like Tityos and Tantalus, whose sufferings Odysseus also witnesses, Sisyphus was an exemplar of eternal punishment-but it’s worth noting that, in the Homeric conception of the afterlife, there’s no clearly defined zone for those destined for everlasting torment. But he would strain again and thrust it back, and the sweat flowed down from his limbs… In fact, he would get a purchase with hands and feet and keep pushing 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 shameless stone. …seeking to raise a monstrous stone with his two hands. In Homer’s account of Odysseus’s travels home from Troy, the Greek hero visits the Underworld, and sees Sisyphus among the dead: Sisyphus’s fate was deeply rooted in Greek literature. Accordingly, they imposed the punishment for which he remains known to this day: to roll a heavy rock uphill forever. Eventually, though, his time came and the gods were intent on ensuring that Sisyphus remain, quite literally, dead and buried. Remarkably, this ruse worked on Hades, and Sisyphus was able to live a while longer. So, on being taken down to the Underworld, Sisyphus could legitimately say that he wasn’t ready, and ought to be returned to the earth above in order to remonstrate with his wife. He’d persuaded his wife not to undertake the funerary rituals that were necessary for any soul to enter the afterlife. In fact, with Death rendered ineffectual, everyone on earth could stay alive.Īfter some time, Ares managed to liberate Thanatos, but Sisyphus had another trick up his sleeve. Yet this “craftiest of men” (Homer, Iliad 6.153) tied up his hunter, and thus continued living. Putting together the different tales that survive, we get this: Zeus intended to kill Sisyphus because he was miffed at him-specifically, for revealing that Zeus had abducted a young lady to said young lady’s father. So Thanatos, the personification of death, was sent to take hold of Sisyphus and transport him down to the Underworld. As ever with Greek myths, it depends on what you read,( 1) but the recurring theme is that Sisyphus’s eternal suffering came about due to his cheating Death and thereby disturbing the cosmic order. (Note: The fabric at the base is a temporary measure to guarantee stability during transport.) Sisyphus’s Sin(s)īut first of all, we should clarify what Sisyphus did wrong. National Archaeological Museum of Naples-Conservation and Restoration Laboratory. By permission of the Italian Ministry of Heritage and Culture and Tourism. National Archaeological Museum of Naples, 81666. Colossal Krater from Altamura, showing Sisyphus at bottom center.
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