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Originally Posted by anticipation
The only story about Sisyphus I've heard is the one where he tricks Persephone into allowing him to return to the world of the living so he can berate his wife for improperly burying him, which he then parlays into a permanent stay, then Hades sentences him to the punishment for disobeying him. There's really no mention of Sisyphus being evil or even immoral. Greek mythology has no message other than to obey the will of the gods, which due to their anthropomorphic nature are constantly changing. The gods never establish morality system or instill a sense of ethical responsibility to my knowledge. Their society was entierly patriarchal in nature, so whatever man did was essentially accepted by society.
I will admit my knowledge of Greek mystics is lacking though.
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What can I say? Then I don't think you know the full story of Sisyphus. Since I'm no authority on greek mythology either, I'll just have to provide you with some sources.
Doing a quick google search on Sisyphus predictably gave a hit on his wikipedia article. Here's an extract from that :
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Originally Posted by Wikipedia
Sisyphus was son of the king Aeolus of Thessaly and Enarete, and the founder and first king Ephyra (Corinth). He was the father of Glaucus by the nymph Merope, and the grandfather of Bellerophon.
Sisyphus promoted navigation and commerce, but was avaricious and deceitful, violating the laws of hospitality by killing travelers and guests. He took pleasure in these killings because they allowed him to maintain his dominant position. From Homer onwards, Sisyphus was famed as the craftiest of men. He seduced his niece, took his brother's throne and betrayed Zeus' secrets. Zeus then ordered Thanatos (Death personified) to chain Sisyphus in Tartarus.
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After this, he uses trickery to escape, something you've heard of - but is at last cursed by Zeus (not Hades) with the task of pushing the boulder.
From the article about Tartarus ;
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Originally Posted by Wikipedia
According to Plato (c. 400), Rhadamanthus, Aeacus and Minos were the judges of the dead and chose who went to Tartarus. Rhadamanthus judged Asian souls; Aeacus judged European souls and Minos was the deciding vote and judge of the Greek.
Plato also proposes the concept that sinners were cast under the ground to be punished in accordance with their sins in the Myth of Er. Cronus (the ruler of the Titans) was thrown down into the pits of Tartarus by his children.
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The Myth of Er which is also referred to here is a story from Plato's Republic dialogue which "introduces the idea that moral people are rewarded and immoral people punished after death". I don't know it well, but I'm assuming that such ideas could have been present in greek mythology before written down in ~400BC.
I completely agree that morals are not as important - the gods themselves do all sorts of wrong and are often vain, angry and arrogant .. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a factor at all.