In the realm of mythology, few figures are as visually evocative as the image of a guy pushing a rock up hill only to watch it roll back down. This enduring depiction is central to the myth of Sisyphus, a narrative immortalized in Albert Camus’s 1942 philosophical essay, The Myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus, originally the cunning founder and king of Ephyra (Corinth) in ancient Greece, is better known for his eternal punishment in the underworld than his earthly achievements.
Cartoon image of a man pushing a rock up a hill
For his trickery in cheating death not once, but twice, Sisyphus faced the wrath of Hades. His sentence: an eternity dedicated to the futile labor of rolling a massive boulder up a hill. Each time he neared the summit, the rock, as if mocking his efforts, would escape his grasp and tumble back to the base, forcing him to begin anew. The gods, in their infinite wisdom, deemed this endless cycle of pointless exertion as a truly agonizing punishment. Thus, the term “Sisyphean” was born, used to describe any task that is both demanding and ultimately fruitless.
While mythology leaves much to our imagination regarding Sisyphus’s experience of this torment, Camus delves into the critical moment after the boulder’s descent. It is in this brief respite, as Sisyphus descends to begin again, that Camus locates the crux of the myth’s philosophical weight. Awareness dawns upon Sisyphus in these moments. He understands the utter absurdity of his fate, the endless repetition, the lack of progress. The tragedy, Camus argues, lies in this very consciousness, in Sisyphus’s clear-eyed recognition of his hopeless predicament.
Cartoon image of a man carrying a rock up a hill
Yet, Camus’s essay takes a surprising turn, suggesting that perhaps Sisyphus can find joy even in this seemingly bleak existence. The moments of despair, Camus posits, arise from looking backward, from longing for a lost world or unattainable happiness. However, by embracing the present, by focusing on the task at hand, Sisyphus can transcend the absurdity. Happiness and the absurd are intertwined in this interpretation. Recognizing the world and our fate as our own, accepting that life’s meaning is self-created, allows Sisyphus – and us – to find contentment even in the face of meaningless struggle. As Camus famously concludes, “The struggle itself … is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
