Sisyphus

Sisyphus was the father of Odysseus and the founder of the city of Corinth. He was considered the most cunning of men. Perhaps the most noteworthy example of this was the trick he played on Hades after arriving in the Underworld. He asked Hades for permission to leave temporarily the Underworld in order to convince his wife to honor properly his burial. However, it was Sisyphus himself who had ordered his wife before dying not to honor him so that he would have this excuse to escape from Hades and live again.

In another legend Sisyphus truthfully informed Asopus that Zeus was the god who had kidnapped Asopus' daughter, Aegina. Zeus was so angry at Sisyphus that he threw him into the Underworld. He condemned Sisyphus to the eternal task of having to roll a stone up a hill only to have it roll to the bottom just before it reached the top. Socrates, like Sisyphus, also received a cruel punishment for the outlandish offense of having told the truth!

Right: Sisyphus in Hades.