Sisyphus

Myth

Its ascent and its descent are quoted in Iliade . Mythical founder of Corinth, wire of Eole. Of alive sound, one says that Sisyphus would have founded the Isthmian Jeux in the honor of Mélicerte of which it had found the body lying on the isthmus of Corinth. Since the time of Homère, Sisyphus preserves the reputation to be most astute of the men: he had developed navigation and the trade, but was miserly and misleading and killed the travellers. He passes besides sometimes for the true father of Ulysses.

Sisyphus is known especially to be himself shown enough malignant to thwart the Mort itself. When its hour had come and that it came to seek it, he connected it so that it could not carry it with the Enfers. Realizing that nobody died, Zeus sent Arès to deliver Death. But Sisyphus did not have that only one turn in its bag and it had informed his wife beforehand not to make him adequate funeral. Thus, it could convince Hadès to let it set out again at the alive ones to regulate this problem. Once returned in Corinthe, he refused to turn over among deaths. Death (or even Hermes, according to certain traditions) had to come to seek it of force. Some say that he had denounced Zeus in one of his adventures. One day, he saw an immense eagle removing an young girl and recognized Zeus in him. When Asopos sought his/her daughter, Egine, it revealed the identity of the kidnapper.

To have dared to defy the gods, Sisyphus was condemned to eternally roll a stone until in top of a hill whereas it went down again each time before arriving to its top, as told in the Odyssey . However, Homère did not mention reason of this punishment. Certain traditions justify this punishment by the reputation of brigand and criminal that Sisyphus had acquired of alive sound.

Interpretation

According to the solar theory, Sisyphus represents the sun which rises each day for replonger the evening under the horizon. Others see there the personification of the tides or the waves which go up for suddenly going down again. It can also be a question of a metaphor of the life itself where this punishment meant that there was more terrible punishment only useless and vain work. One perceives the nonsense of the character as well in despair to try to escape an inevitable death, as in the attempt to complete an interminable work.

In its first philosophical test, the Myth of Sisyphus , Camus qualifies Sisyphus of ultimate absurd hero. He establishes there why the life, in spite of the nonsense of the destiny, is worth the sorrow to be lived.

This myth is not exclusive with the traditions gréco-Romans. There exist other examples of characters who manage to capture Death by attaching it in a bag or, by hiding it in a bottle so that nobody would die of the years lasting.

Artistic evocations

Sisyphus was a source of inspiration not only for many writers, but also for the other artists:

Polygnote includes it in its frescos of the walls of the Lesché de Delphes, as described by Pausanias;
Sisyphus is the name of a bronze carved by Jules Desbois in 1910;
Sisyphus is the name of a painting of Franz von Stuck going back to 1920.
Sisyphus is the name of the main character of the Mythe of Sisyphus, published by Albert Camus in 1944

Sources

(I, 7,3 and 9,3; III, 4,3; III, 12,6).
(VI, 153 and suiv.), (XI, 592-600).
(LX).
(II, 3 and 4; IX, 34,10; X, 31).

Note: there exists also a fragment of a Tragédie entitled Sisyphus allotted sometimes to Critias, sometimes with Euripide.

See too

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