The Myth
     
  Our film is based on a Greek myth where Sisyphus is punished by rolling a stone with his hands in an effort to heave it over the top of a hill; but regardless of how much he pushes, the stone rebounds backward again and again. He endures this punishment because when Zeus had secretly carried off Aegina, Sisyphus disclosed the secret to her father the river god Asopus, who was looking for her.  
     
 

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  Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, married Atlas' daughter Merope, the Pleiad, who bore him Glaucus, Ornytion, and Sinon, and 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, though Autolycus himself claimed Hermes as his father.  
     
  Now, Autolycus was a past master in theft, Hermes having given him the power of metamorphosing whatever beasts he stole, from horned to unhorned, or from black to white, and contrariwise. Thus, although Sisyphus noticed that his own herds grew steadily smaller, while those of Autolycus increased, e was unable tat first to convict him of theft; and therefore, one day, engraved the inside of all his cattle's hooves with the monogram SS or, some say with the words 'Stolen by Autolycus'. That night Autolycus helped himself as usual, and at dawn hoof prints along the road provided Sisyphus with sufficient evidence to summon neighbors in witness of the theft. He visited Autolycus' stable, recognized his stolen beasts by their marked hooves and, leaving his witnesses to remonstrate with the thief, hurried around 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, afterwards knows as Corinth, and peopled it with men sprung from mushrooms, unless it be true that Medea gave him the kingdom as a present. His contemporaries know 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, who was the rightful heir, consulted the Delphic Oracle and was told: '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 market place of Larissa, produced the dead bodies, falsely accused Aalmoneus 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 to Aegina but would not reveal anything unless Asopus undertook to supply the citadel of Corinth with a perennial sprint. Asopus accordingly made the spring Peirene rise behind Aphrodite's temple where there are now images of the goddess, armed; of the Sun' and of Eros the Archer. Then Sisyphus told him 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, because nobody could die, even men who had been beheaded or cut in pieces; until as last Ares, whose interests were threatened, came hurrying up, set him free, and delivered Sisyphus into his clutches.  
     
  Sisyphus, however kept another trick in reserve. Before descending to Tartarus, he instructed his wife Merope not to bury him; and, on reaching the Palace of Hades went straight to Persephone, and told her that, as an unburied person, he had no right to be there but should have been left on the far side of the river Styx. 'Let me return to the upper world,' he pleaded, 'arrange for by burial, and avenge the neglect shown me. My presence here is most irregular. I will be back 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.  
     
  It may have been because he had injured Salmoneous, or because he had betrayed Zeus' secret, or because he had always lived by robbery and often murdered unsuspecting travelers - some say that it was Theseus who put an end to Sisyphus career, thought this is not generally mentioned among Theseus' feats - at any rate, Sisyphus was given an exemplary punishment. The Judges of the Dead showed him a huge block of stone - identical in size with that into which Zeus had turned himself when 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 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 too - deserted her six starry sisters in the night sky and has never been seen since. And as the whereabouts of Neleus' tomb on the Corinthian Isthmus 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.