King Sisyphus
This article is about the role of Sisyphus in the lore of ULTRAKILL. For his Prime Soul form, see Sisyphus Prime. For the soldier of his army and the miniboss of 4-2: GOD DAMN THE SUN, see Sisyphean Insurrectionist. For the King of Lust who led a renaissance, see King Minos.
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King Sisyphus was a previous resident of the Greed layer, the leader and tyrant of the Sisyphean Insurrection within the same layer, and is later reborn as the second Prime Soul known as 
Sisyphus Prime in P:2 WAIT OF THE WORLD.
He is first mentioned by name in 4-2: GOD DAMN THE SUN in a book detailing his leadership in orchestrating the insurrection in the wake of the angels' departure from Hell.
Appearance
As a husk, Sisyphus was a large, burly, dark-skinned man with black hair, a beard, and long dreadlocks. He wore a blindfold over his eyes, which covered streaks of molten gold.
His corpse is incredibly large and muscular, with its arms stretched outward and chained to the walls of the pyramid. Blood, which has dried, drips from his severed neck onto the torso, with further wounds around the stomach area. His corpse's missing head was consequently due to his beheading by Gabriel during the climax of the Sisyphean Insurrection.
As a Prime Soul, he appears as a towering, golden translucent humanoid, retaining his very muscular physique as a husk, and has a visible heart and circulatory system. His neck is severed, with his head replaced by an extremely bright sun-like ball of light with red lines contouring a vague facial structure. His lower arms and legs are stained red with blood. When Sisyphus Prime is damaged enough, he regrows his beard and dreadlocks, and his limbs are further stained with blood.
Backstory
It is unknown if this is the same Sisyphus in Ancient Greek mythology. If so, this Sisyphus was the founder and king of Ephyra, the supposed original name of Corinth. Sisyphus, incredibly avaricious and deceitful, maintained an iron-fisted rule by killing guests in his palace and taking pleasure in it. He cheated death twice: once by tricking his captor Thanatos into trapping himself instead, and twice by fooling his wife into intentionally disrespecting his body and feigning offense so that Persephone would release his spirit to the real world again. After this, he was forcibly dragged down to the underworld by Hermes. Here, Hades would punish Sisyphus by giving him an impossible task: to roll a boulder up a hill, only for it to fall to the bottom just before it peaked, repeating this action for the rest of eternity.
The last line of Sisyphus Prime's terminal entry, "One must imagine Sisyphus happy," serves as a reference for the inspiration of Sisyphus' characterization in ULTRAKILL from The Myth of Sisyphus, a 1942 philosophical essay by Albert Camus. It describes a viewpoint of absurdism, how to live by it, and how it manifests - in this case, Sisyphus is aware of the futility of his punishment, and his acceptance of this allows him to continue on out of pure spite and contentedness. Indeed, it is these traits that encouraged many of Sisyphus' actions in ULTRAKILL.
Sisyphus was likely another large husk in Hell undergoing his never-ending punishment in the Greed layer, presumably the same one he carried out in Tartarus, all without showing a hint of repentance for his sins. He later took advantage of the angels being distracted by God's disappearance and the subsequent chaos in Heaven by rallying the husks of Greed that were intelligent or strong enough to fight against their oppressors, training them to become his soldiers. In a book located inside a solarium in 4-2: GOD DAMN THE SUN, a soldier of Greed recounts the hope Sisyphus inspires in his followers to reclaim their freedom through brute force, all before the war the took an unexpected, tragic turn.
TEXT SCANNED - UNIQUE PASSAGE:
"It has been days since we last saw any angels. Without their
oppression, there is no need for us to carry on our punishment. Even
the meekest of the damned have abandoned their penance to take up
arms. All can see how they have robbed us of our minds, bodies, and
souls, leaving us only the hopes of a salvation that will never
come, but no longer.
King Sisyphus has acted in secret until now, amassing an army
whose strength and numbers swell, but now there is no need to hide
anymore. We have lived in the shadow of Heaven long enough to forget
the taste of fear. Now the Sisyphean Insurrectionists prepare for
war.
I have heard of Minos beginning a peaceful revolution, but our
King Sisyphus knows such pacificity will gain no favor form our
cruel captors. He knows that one can only fight power with power,
and he shall lead us to freedom.
REMAINING TEXT: IRRELEVANT.
When the angels returned with renewed authority under the dictatorship of the Council, the archangel and Heaven's chief enforcer 
Gabriel led an army of angels to face the Sisyphean Insurrection. While the fight was on a biblically massive scale, the husks were slowly losing due to the better strategy and combat experience of the angels.
When Gabriel realized the insurrectionists relied on the radiance and guidance of Sisyphus to a fault, he ordered a focused assault on the king. Gabriel unsheathed his two swords, Justice and Splendor, and swiftly beheaded Sisyphus before raising his head for all to see. Without their beloved leader, the insurrectionists soon fell submissive to Heaven's rule once again. All allies to the rebellion were cleaved into pieces so they could return to suffering their original punishment but were less inclined to rebel once more.
Almost immediately after his death, the soul of Sisyphus began to form into a Prime Soul. The angels hastily constructed the Flesh Panopticon out of fear of his readily apparent and escalating power and trapped Sisyphus inside, hoping he would not awaken in time to finish his ascension. Any other husks that did not submit were also taken down to the Panopticon's quarters inside the City of Dis within the Heresy layer.
Within the Panopticon, he lied dormant, frozen in his ascension until an unwitting machine awakened both it and him.
In-Game
Sisyphus' form as a husk depicted in a portrait in front of his corpse in 4-4: CLAIR DE SOLEIL, seen at the top of the page.
This portrait, as well as his corpse, can be found in the room after the first jump pad. The door to the right room appears slightly cracked open, where a 
Blue Skull can be seen on a pedestal inside. The right door can be fully opened by grabbing the Blue Skull with the 
Whiplash, allowing the player to enter the Chamber of the Feline and the Rodent. Firing the 
Electric Railcannon into the water around the blue pedestal opens the center door outside the chamber (the player can also fire the Railcannon at the water through the crack without needing to use the Whiplash). Entering the center chamber reveals the colossal, headless corpse of Sisyphus in the darkness of the massive pyramid the level takes place in, hung by his arms and black with decay, with his portrait placed in front of it.
Placed in front of the portrait of Sisyphus' husk is an altar holding the 
Sawblade Launcher, surrounded by murals on the walls of his killer, Gabriel.
As a Prime Soul, the level containing Sisyphus Prime can only be unlocked after obtaining a P-Rank in every level of Act II, and only after completing the previous Prime Sanctum, P-1: SOUL SURVIVOR. However, finishing P-1 with a P-Rank is not required. Once this is achieved, the Prime Sanctum's entrance inside a hidden corridor in 6-2: AESTHETICS OF HATE becomes available to the player.
After an intense gauntlet to truly test all of the player's skills, the player can encounter the Flesh Panopticon that has held Sisyphus ever since his defeat in Greed. Due to V1 awakening and firing upon the Panopticon, Sisyphus fully completes his transformation into a Prime Soul inside of it and breaks himself out. He monologues his plans to destroy Heaven with his newfound power, but his curiosity about V1's skills is brought up after he notices "the blood of Minos" on it. He arrogantly challenges the machine to a battle to the death. After a long battle, Sisyphus is eventually defeated, and he reminisces on his meaningless life and the satisfaction he felt from it, laughing maniacally before dying for the final time.
Media
Concept art by Francis Xie depicting King Sisyphus with various eye coverings
