What was Sisyphus known for?

Sisyphus was known for cheating death and then being punished by Zeus when, down in Hades, he had to forever roll a stone up a hill.

How did Sisyphus cheat death?

Sisyphus cheated death twice, first by capturing Thanatos, the personification of Death, and then for a second time by convincing Hades to let him return to the world of the living to make sure his wife made the correct offerings to the god.

What is the moral of Sisyphus?

The moral of the Sisyphus story is that humans can not cheat the natural order of things and become immortal like the gods.

Why did Zeus punish Sisyphus?

Zeus punished Sisyphus because he twice tried to cheat death. The story is a reminder that humans are mortal and not gods.

Audio: Sisyphus

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Article:	Sisyphus
Author:	Mark Cartwright
Narrator:	Kelly Macquire

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Kelly Macquire

Kelly is a graduate from Monash University who has completed her BA (Honours) in Ancient History and Archaeology, focussing on iconography and status in Pylos burials. She has a passion for mythology and the Aegean Bronze Age.

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About the Author

Mark Cartwright

Mark is a full-time writer, researcher, historian, and editor. Special interests include art, architecture, and discovering the ideas that all civilizations share. He holds an MA in Political Philosophy and is the WHE Publishing Director.

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Uploaded by Mark Cartwright, published on 14 December 2016. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

Sisyphus

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