E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Sis’yphus (Latin; Sisuphos, Greek).
A fraudulent avaricious king of Corinth, whose task in the world of shades is to roll a huge stone to the top of a hill, and fix it there. It so falls out that the stone no sooner reaches the hill-top than it bounds down again.
