Cycladia Travel Guides

History | Mythology

The myth of Sisiphus

Sisiphus was the first king of Corinth. According to the Greek Mythology he managed to trick Hades by putting him in jail. So, no one died for quite a long time even very ill or injured people. The gods of Olympus were very upset and Aris liberated Hades, who took Sisiphus to the “world of the dead”.

But Sisiphus was very cunning and had asked his wife not to honour him properly after his death. Thus he asked Hades to let him return to the world of the living in order to complain to his wife for not mourning, under the condition that he would return to the “underworld” after a while. Hades agreed, but Sisiphus did not return.

So, Hermes forced him to go back to the world of the dead. Then, he was punished with an eternal penalty: he had to roll an enormous rock to the top of a hill and when the rock arrived to the top, it tumbled back down; and this went on forever.

The hero Vellerefondis

Vellerefondis was a famous Corinthian hero. He was the son of Glafkos and the grandson of Sisiphus. After killing Velleros, he was forced to leave Corinth. So, he went to Tyrinth where queen Andia, wife of king Proitos, fell in love with him.

But Vellerefondis let her down so she talked against him to her husband. As a result, Proitos sent him to his father-in-law, Iovatis, the king of Lykia in western Asia Minor, asking him to kill Vellerefondis. Iovatis preferred to assign him three almost impossible missions: to fight against the violent people “Solimi”, to face the Amazons and to fight Chimaera, the monster that was a lion in the front and a dragon in the back.

In all three cases, Vellerefondis won. After his success Vellerefondis returned to Lykia and Iovatis agreed to give him his daughter, Amphiklia, as his wife.
However, Vellerefondis believed he was very powerful and tried to go to Olympus in order to see where the gods lived. The gods were furious and Zeus threw a thunder on him which lead to his paralysis and his losing the kingdom of Lykia, as well as his horse Pegasus.

Jason and Medea in Corinth

Jason and Medea went to Corinth as they were chased by Akastos, the son of Pelias (Jason had asked Medea to revenge Pelias and she told her daughters to cut his body and boil it in order to make him young again). The myth says that the couple lived very happily in Corinth until Jason left Medea in order to marry Glafki, the daughter of king Kreondas.

Hercules in Lake Stymfalia

One of the Labours of Hercules was to kill the horrifying Stimphalian Birds who lived in Lake Stimphalia in Corinthia and had metallic feathers and beaks of bronze, destroyed the land and ate people. Hercules managed to kill them by using a special rattle in order to frighten the birds and get them to fly, and then he shot them with his arrows. A few birds managed to fly away but never came back.

The Nemean Lion

According to the Greek mythology Hercules accomplished another Labour in Corinthia: he killed the Nemean Lion who lived in the area of Nemea and had a fur that was impenetrable by weapons. Hercules managed to get the lion into a cage with two entrances, blocked the one entrance with a huge rock and then strangled the lion to death.

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