![]() ![]() ![]() It is said that Sisyphus, being near to death, rashly wanted to test his wife's love. He dispatched the god of war, who liberated Death from the hands of her conqueror. Pluto could not endure the sight of his deserted, silent empire. Homer tells us also that Sisyphus had put Death in chains. He was punished for this in the underworld. To the celestial thunderbolts he preferred the benediction of water. He, who knew of the abduction, offered to tell about it on condition that Esopus would give water to the citadel of Corinth. The father was shocked by that disappearance and complained to Sisyphus. Egina, the daughter of Esopus, was carried off by Jupiter. To begin with, he is accused of a certain levity in regard to the gods. ![]() Opinions differ as to the reasons why he became the futile laborer of the underworld. According to another tradition, however, he was disposed to practice the profession of highwayman. If one believes Homer, Sisyphus was the wisest and most prudent of mortals. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. ![]()
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