Sisyphus

//ˈsɪsɪfəs// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Son of Aeolus and Enarete, and king of Ephyra, as tragic figure doomed eternally to roll a boulder up a hill in Tartarus, a part of Hades. Greek

    "Indeed, I have looked upon the fable of Sisyphus as an allegory, and that his wife was the stone which so perpetually rolled back upon his hands, effectually retarding his weary progress up-hill."

Example

More examples

"The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Σίσυφος (Sísuphos).

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.