SISYPHUS, son of Aeolus, married ATLAS' daughter Merope the Pleiad, who bore him Glaucus, Ornytion, and Sinon; he owned a fine herd of cattle on the Isthmus of CORINTH.   Near him lived Autolycus, son of Chione, whose twin brother Philammon was begotten by APOLLO, although Autolycus himself claimed Hermes as his father.

Now, Autolycus was a past master of theft, HERMES having given him the power of metamorphosing whatever beasts he stole from horned to unhorned, black to white, and contrariwise. Thus, although SISYPHUS noticed that his own herds grew steadily smaller while those of Autolycus increased, he was unable at first to convict him of theft; and therefore, one day, engraved the inside of his cattle's hooves with the monogram SS (or, some say, with the message "stolen by Autolycus"). That night Autolycus helped himself as usual, and at dawn the hoofprints along the road provided SISYPHUS with enough evidence to summon neighbours in witness of the theft. He visited Autolycus' stable, recognised his stolen beasts by their marked hooves and, leaving his witnesses to remonstrate with the thief, hurried round the house, entered by the portal, and while the argument was in progress outside, seduced Autolycus' daughter Anticleia, wife to LAERTES the ARGIVE. She bore him ODYSSEUS, the manner of whose conception is enough to account for the cunning he habitually showed, and for his nickname, Hypsipylon.

SISYPHUS founded Ephyra, later called CORINTH, and peopled it with men sprung from mushrooms, unless it be true that Medea gave him the kingdom as a present. His contemporaries knew him as the worst knave on earth, granting only that he promoted Corinthian commerce and navigation.

When, on the death of Aeolus, Salmoneus usurped the Thessalian throne, SISYPHUS, the rightful heir,  consulted the Delphic Oracle, who told him, "Sire children on your niece; they will avenge you." He therefore seduced Tyro, Salmoneus' daughter, who, happening to discover that his motive was not love for her but hatred of her father, killed the two sons she had borne him. SISYPHUS then entered the marketplace of Larissa, produced the dead bodies, falsely accused Salmoneus of incest and murder, and had him expelled from Thessaly.

After Zeus' abduction of Aegina, her father the river god Asopus came to CORINTH in search of her. SISYPHUS knew well what had happened, but would not reveal anything unless Asopus undertook to supply the citadel of CORINTH with a perennial spring. Asopus accordingly made the spring Peirene rise behind Aphrodite's temple, where now stand images of the goddess, of the Sun, and of Eros the archer. Then SISYPHUS told all he knew.

Zeus, who had narrowly escaped Asopus' vengeance, ordered his brother HADES to fetch SISYPHUS down to Tartarus and punish him everlastingly for his betrayal of divine secrets. Yet SISYPHUS would not be daunted. He cunningly put Hades himself in handcuffs by persuading him to demonstrate their use, and then quickly locking them. Thus Hades was kept a prisoner in SISYPHUS' house for some days - an impossible situation, for nobody could die, even men who had been beheaded or cut to pieces; until at last Ares, whose interests were threatened, came hurrying up, set him free, and delivered SISYPHUS into his clutches.

SISYPHUS, however, kept another trick up his sleeve. Before descending to Tartarus, he had instructed his wife Merope not to bury his body.  On reaching the Palace of Hades, he went straight to Persephone and told her that, as an unburied man, he had no right to be there but should have been left in the darkness on the far side of the river Styx. "Let me return to the world," he pled, "arrange for my burial, and avenge the neglect shown me. I will return within three days." Persephone was deceived and granted his request; but as soon as SISYPHUS found himself once again under the light of the sun, he repudiated his promise to Persephone. Finally Hermes was called upon to hale him back by force.

Possibly because he had injured Salmoneus, because he had betrayed Zeus' secret, or because he had always lived by robbery and had often murdered unsuspecting travellers, SISYPHUS was given an exemplary punishment. The judges of the dead [MINOS, AEACUS, and RHADAMANTHUS] showed him a huge block of stone -- identical in size with the one into which Zeus had turned himself while fleeing from Asopus -- and ordered him to roll it up the brow of a hill and topple it down the farther slope. He has never yet succeeded in doing so. As soon as he has almost reached the summit, he is forced back by the weight of the "shameless stone," which bounces to the very bottom once more, where he wearily retrieves it and must begin all over again, though sweat bathes his trembling limbs and a cloud of dust rises above his head.

Merope, ashamed to find herself the only Pleiad with a husband in the Underworld -- and a criminal to boot --deserted her six starry sisters in the night sky, and has never been seen since. And as the whereabouts of Neleus' tomb on the Isthmus of CORINTH was a secret which SISYPHUS refused to divulge even to NESTOR, so the CORINTHIANS are now equally reticent when asked for the whereabouts of SISYPHUS' own burial place.

Some say that it was THESEUS who put an end to SISYPHUS' wicked career, though this is not generally mentioned amongst the feats of THESEUS.