Sisyphus
Sisyphus, son of the god lord of all winds Aeolus, was the founder of the city of Corinth, which in ancient times was called Ether.
No one in all of Greece could equal Sisyphus in cunning, cunning and resourcefulness of mind. Sisyphus, thanks to his cunning, collected incalculable riches at his home in Corinth; the fame of his treasures spread far.
When the grim god of death came to him Thanatos, in order to bring him down to the sad kingdom of Hades, Sisyphus, even earlier feeling the approach of the god of death, insidiously deceived the god of Thanatos and put him in fetters. People stopped dying on earth then. There were no big magnificent funerals anywhere; they stopped offering sacrifices to the gods of the underworld. The order established by Zeus has been violated on earth. Then the thunderer Zeus sent the mighty god of war to Sisyphus Ares. He freed Thanatos from his shackles, and Thanatos tore out the soul of Sisyphus and took her to the realm of the shadows of the dead.
But even here the cunning Sisyphus managed to help himself. He told his wife not to bury his body and not to sacrifice to the underground gods. Sisyphus' wife obeyed her husband. Aid and Persephone waited a long time for the funeral victims. They're all gone! Finally, Sisyphus approached the throne of Hades and said to the ruler of the kingdom of the dead, Hades:
- Oh, lord of the souls of the dead, great Hades, equal in power to Zeus, let me go to the bright earth. I will order my wife to bring you rich sacrifices and I will return back to the kingdom of shadows.
So Sisyphus deceived the lord of Hades, and he let him go to earth. Sisyphus did not return, of course, to the kingdom of Hades. He stayed in his magnificent palace and feasted merrily, rejoicing that one of all mortals managed to return from the gloomy realm of shadows.
Hades was angry, he again sent Thanatos for the soul of Sisyphus. Thanatos came to the palace of the most cunning of mortals and found him at a luxurious feast. The god of death, hated by gods and people, has torn out the soul of Sisyphus; now the soul of Sisyphus has flown forever into the realm of shadows.
A heavy punishment is borne by Sisyphus in the afterlife for all the insidiousness, for all the deceptions that he committed on earth. He is condemned to roll a huge stone up a high, steep mountain. Sisyphus is working with all his strength. Sweat is pouring off him from hard work. The peak is getting closer; another effort, and Sisyphus' work will be over; but a stone breaks out of his hands and rolls down with a noise, raising clouds of dust. Sisyphus gets to work again.So Sisyphus rolls the stone forever and can never reach the goal - the top of the mountain.