Is this how we’ll end up as humans? Since we already know how our story will end…Īre we destined to repeat the same meaningless daily chores and toil in vain? How can our life be more than just monotonous, repetitive days strung together and leading to our death? “We build our lives on the hope for tomorrow, yet tomorrow brings us closer to death and is the ultimate enemy people live their lives as if they were not aware of the certainty of death.”Īren’t we all like Sisyphus? Is this any different from the struggles of an ordinary person? Don’t we all push our “rock” up a hill just to have it tumble down again? He also addressed the futility of existence: He compares our actions as humans to Sisyphus’ burden. That’s how Sisyphus ended up with the pointless and miserable task of dragging a massive rock up a steep hill.Ĭamus employs Sisyphus as a metaphor for the individual’s ongoing struggle with life’s inherent absurdity. And deter other mortals from thinking they could mislead the gods as well. This was the final straw for Zeus, who determined to punish Sisyphus. So, Persephone granted his request to return to the mortal realm to punish his wife. In the Underworld, he complained to Persephone (Hades’ wife) about what his wife had done to his body. In his second encounter with death, the cunning Sisyphus instructed his wife not to bury his body. And Sisyphus was able to return to his kingdom. With the Ruler of the Underworld being chained, humans enjoyed a brief age of immortality. In the Underworld, Sisyphus managed to deceive Hades and put him in chains. Enraged, Zeus sentenced Sisyphus to death. Well, it all started when he helped the river-god Asopus find his lost daughter, who had been kidnapped by Zeus. How did Sisyphus come to be subjected to such a dreadful torment? This huge rock would just almost reach the summit before tumbling downhill. Homer called him “the most cunning of men,” and his death-defying antics infuriated Zeus, not once but twice.Īs a result, he was relegated to the demeaning task of pushing a massive rock up a steep slope. According to Greek mythology, Sisyphus was the King of Ephyra who became infamous for his crafty and wicked ingenuity.

My sisyphus table