But before he was returned, Sisyphus was already planning his second escape from death. Ares also trapped Sisyphus and returned him to Thanatos to receive his punishment for the second time. It took Ares, the god of war, to restore the balance between life and death. With Thanatos chained up, mortals no longer died. Thanatos agreed to show him, and Sisyphus quickly chained Thanatos instead. Thanatos captured Sisyphus and prepared to chain him up when Sisyphus asked Thanatos to demonstrate how the chains worked. In one version of the story, Zeus asked Thanatos, the personification of death, to chain Sisyphus in the underworld. Revealing the god’s secrets went a step too far, and Zeus decided it was time to punish Sisyphus. Interestingly enough, Zeus was further angered when Sisyphus told the river god Asopus where Zeus had taken the river god’s kidnapped daughter. Zeus was disappointed in Sisyphus’s cruelty.
He would even kill his guests to prove that he was a king to be feared. He helped Corinth prosper commercially, but he often refused to show guests to his city the decency and hospitality required by Zeus. In Greek legend, Sisyphus was the sly and deceitful king of Corinth.
I came across a painting by Titian of Sisyphus that made me reflect on the nature of our addictions. Sometimes we find ourselves addicted to substances, emotions, and ways of thinking that keep us far from experiencing any semblance of inner peace.
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