In the great Greek epic poem, the Odyssey, Homer writes about the famed hero Odysseus, the king of Ithaca.
Sisyphus in the Odyssey Sisyphus in the Underworld, 510-500 BCE, via The British Museum, London Upon returning to Corinth, Sisyphus reunited with his wife, broke his word to Hades, and lived a full life once again, before dying a second time.
Hades granted him the right to return to earth to punish his wife and arrange the funeral. When he died, he immediately went to Hades, the god of the underworld, and complained that he had not received a proper burial. Knowing that death would come back to ensnare him anew, he gave his wife Merope careful instructions to leave his body unburied once he was dead and forbade her from performing any funerary rituals. However, Sisyphus would not despair so readily. Ares, as the Greek god of war and the representative of the ghastly aspects of brutality and manslaughter, was highly qualified for the duty. Zeus, enraged that mortals had ceased to die now, sent Ares down to earth to release Thanatos. During the demonstration, the mortal Sisyphus was able to chain Thanatos and save humanity from death. When Thanatos, the Greek god of death, came to fetch Sisyphus, Sisyphus requested that the god displayed how the manacles he carried worked. Sisyphus was the founder and first king of Corinth, whom Homer described as “the craftiest of men” ( Iliad 6.153). 510-500 BCE, via The British Museum, London Sisyphus’s Sins and Punishment Two winged figures (Hypnos and Thanatos) lifting a dead body (Sarpedon), c.
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