Sisyphus was the king of Corinth, one of the most clever and dishonest of Greek mortals, who was condemned by the gods to roll a great stone up a hill for eternity, only to have it roll back down just as he reached the top. The myth of Sisyphus has been one of the most influential in Western culture, used by Aristotle to illustrate the absurdity of human existence, by Albert Camus to develop a philosophy of the absurd, and by countless other thinkers to describe the endless, repetitive labor that is the human condition. The phrase “Sisyphean task” has come to mean a task that is endless and unachievable, derived from this myth.
The Origins of Sisyphus
Sisyphus was the son of Aeolus, the king of Thessaly, and the founder of the city of Corinth. He was a great king and a great builder, and he was credited with founding the Isthmian Games, which were held in honor of Poseidon. He was also said to have been the father of several famous children, including Glaucus, the father of Bellerophon.
Sisyphus was famous for his cunning and his dishonesty. According to the myth, he was a great trickster who repeatedly tried to cheat death and the gods. He was said to have been the father of Odysseus by Anticleia, and Odysseus inherited his cunning from his father.
The Trickery of Sisyphus
Sisyphus was famous for several acts of trickery. According to one tradition, he betrayed the secrets of the gods by revealing the location of the golden ram of Ares, and he was condemned to eternal punishment. According to another, he was punished for the more general sin of being a “shyster,” a swindler who used his intelligence to deceive others.
The most famous trick of Sisyphus was his escape from death. According to the myth, when Hades came to claim him, Sisyphus tricked the god and bound him in chains, so that no one could die. Eventually, Ares came and freed Hades, and Sisyphus was condemned to the underworld.
Before Sisyphus descended to the underworld, he instructed his wife Merope to leave his body unburied, and to refuse to make the customary offerings. When he arrived in the underworld, he complained to Persephone that his wife had not honored him, and he asked to return to the upper world to punish her. Persephone agreed, and Sisyphus returned to the upper world, where he lived for many more years before he died a second time and was condemned to the underworld for good.
The Punishment of Sisyphus
Sisyphus was condemned by the gods to roll a great stone up a hill for eternity. Each time he neared the top of the hill, the stone would roll back down, and he would have to start again. The punishment was chosen because it reflected Sisyphus’s character: he was a trickster, and the punishment was a kind of trick, an endless, repetitive, and unachievable labor.
The myth of Sisyphus has been interpreted in many ways. The ancient Greeks saw it as a punishment for hubris and for deceit. The Christian theologians of late antiquity saw it as an allegory of the human condition, the endless struggle against sin. The existentialist philosophers of the 20th century saw it as a metaphor for the absurdity of human existence.
Sisyphus in Greek Philosophy
Aristotle used the myth of Sisyphus in his Nicomachean Ethics to illustrate the concept of the “happy life.” He argued that the gods, in condemning Sisyphus to eternal toil, had given him the most miserable existence possible. But Aristotle also pointed out that the gods, in giving Sisyphus this punishment, had acknowledged the importance of labor, even meaningless labor, to the human condition.
The Stoic philosophers, including Seneca and Epictetus, used the myth of Sisyphus to teach the importance of accepting one’s fate. They argued that the gods, in giving Sisyphus his punishment, had given him an opportunity to develop the virtue of acceptance, the ability to do what must be done without complaint.
Albert Camus and the Myth of Sisyphus
The most famous modern interpretation of the myth of Sisyphus is the 1942 essay by Albert Camus, Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus). Camus used the myth to develop his philosophy of the absurd, the idea that the human condition is fundamentally meaningless, but that this meaninglessness can be a source of freedom rather than despair.
Camus argued that the recognition of the absurdity of life, far from leading to despair, could lead to a kind of freedom, the freedom to embrace life in spite of its meaninglessness. The image of Sisyphus, struggling up the hill with his stone, was for Camus the image of the human condition, and yet Sisyphus, in his struggle, was also free. “One must imagine Sisyphus happy,” Camus concluded.
The Cultural Legacy of Sisyphus
The myth of Sisyphus has had a profound influence on Western culture. The phrase “Sisyphean task” has become a standard expression for a task that is endless and unachievable, and it has been used in literature, business, and politics to describe everything from bureaucratic paperwork to environmental cleanup to the human struggle against mortality.
The image of Sisyphus has been the subject of countless works of art, including paintings by Titian, Rubens, and many other artists. The myth has also been the subject of operas, plays, and films, including the 2009 film Sisyphus and the 2018 opera Sisyphus by Gerald Cohen. The phrase “Sisyphean” has been used in psychology, philosophy, and literary criticism to describe the endless, repetitive, and unachievable nature of human striving.
For more on the cultural legacy, see our guide to Greek mythology in modern culture, and our profiles of Hades and Tantalus. For the philosophy, see our guide to Greek mythology in psychology.