CLASSICAL ANTIHEROESSISYPHUS
The founder of the city of Corinth, Sisyphus was guilty of several
transgressions, including killing guests and seducing his own niece.
Banished to the Underworld for his deeds, he tried to cheat death, first
by confining Thanatos, the god of mortality, but without success. Then
he instructed his wife not to carry out the burial rites for him. When
Hades sent him back to Earth to ensure that the rites were performed,
Sisyphus refused to return to the Underworld. For
his presumption in trying to turn himself into an
immortal, Sisyphus was condemned to roll a heavy
boulder up a hill. When the rock reached the
hilltop, it rolled back down again, so Sisyphus
had to keep repeating his task eternally.
TANTALUS
The King of Sipylus in Lydia, Tantalus was a son of Zeus. As a relative of
Zeus he was allowed to dine with the gods, but he abused this privilege.
Some myths say he gossiped about the gods’ secrets, others that he stole
food from them and gave it to mortals. According to an extreme version,
he tested the gods by serving the flesh of his own son
for them to eat. His punishment for these
transgressions was to sufer eternal thirst
and hunger. He was made to stand in a pool
below a fruit-laden tree. The pool emptied
each time Tantalus tried desperately to drink
the water, while the overhanging branches
blew out of reach whenever he tried to grasp
them, hence the word, “tantalize”.
MIDAS
King Midas of Phrygia helped Silenus, a
follower of Dionysus, and in return the
god granted Midas any favour he wished.
The king, who was consumed by greed,
asked that everything he touched should
change to gold. But when his food and
drink were turned to gold, Midas asked
Dionysus to take the gift away. One day,
he came across Pan and Apollo in the
countryside. The two gods were having
an argument about who was the better
musician. Midas chose Pan over the god
of music, and an irate Apollo punished
him by giving him the ears of an ass.
Midas had to keep his head covered with
a turban, but news of his ridiculous ears
got out, and he ended
his life by drinking hot
bull’s blood.Midas with Pan and Apollo
In spite of the fact that other listeners thought Apollo to
be the better musician, Midas chose his rival Pan, rousing
the anger of the other deity.Midas wih
his daughter
In some versions of
Midas’s myth, the king
touches his daughter
and she turns into a
golden statue.Tantalus’s punishment
The fruit represented an inversion of the
usual bounty of the gods, a fitting punishment
for Tantalus’s insults to the Olympians.Thanatos
The son of Night
and Darkness,
Thanatos was a
much feared but rarely seen
god in the myths of Greece.Sisyphus pushing a rock
For artists and writers in both ancient and
modern times, Sisyphus and his terrible
punishment became the iconic image of
hard, endless, and pointless tasks.51