In Greek myth, Sisyphus, the human king of Corinth, was a cunning trickster and murderer who could deceive both gods and humans. Along with these
crimes, Sisyphus also tattled on Zeus, king of the gods, after Zeus kidnapped a
nymph. Zeus sent Sisyphus to Tartarus, the jail beneath the underworld. There,
Sisyphus outsmarted Thanatos, the overseer of death, by tricking Thanatos into
trying on Sisyphus's chains. Thanatos's imprisonment meant that mortals
couldn't die, which really upset life on Earth. As a result, Sisyphus was
condemned for his trickery and for betraying Zeus in the first place. Zeus
sentenced Sisyphus to spend eternity pushing a huge boulder up a hill. Every
time he neared the top, though, it would roll back down, and Sisyphus would
have to start pushing it up all over again.
Which element of this passage most clearly identifies it as mythology?