Sisyphus

By Noralyn Dudt

I'm writing this on board the Viking Jupiter cruise in the South Atlantic. To mitigate the effect of the tons of delicious foods that I am eating, I have been going  to the gym  to run on the treadmill. It has been days and I'm still here. My running at a speed of 5.5 km per hour has not gotten me anywhere. And with the vast ocean around me, there seems to be no "land" in sight. The cleaning crews do their cleaning and scrubbing early in the morning, and do it all over again by midday, and in the late afternoon.  All of these remind me of the term "Sisyphean."  It's never ending, not arriving at any place....a Sisyphean task it's called. Where and how did such an odd-sounding  term originate?

Sisyphus in one of the Greek myths was the founder and  king of Ephyra ( now known as Corinth ) who was punished for his trickery by being forced to roll a massive boulder to the top of a steep hill. Every time the boulder neared the top, the stone would escape his grasp and  would roll back down again. Sisyphus would have to start over… and over... and over again. The gods made sure of that. The gods were  not fond of mortals who went around defying them.

Picture that in your mind and you see an endless act, a Sisyphean task.

Ancient Greek mythology is a vast and fascinating group of legends about gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters, warriors and fools that were an important part of everyday life. Greek myths elaborated everything from religious rituals to the weather,  and gave meaning to a world that people saw around them. While many of these myths are fanciful tales, such as the well-known legend of greedy King Midas or heroic Hercules, other stories like the Trojan War epic are based on historical facts.

That the myths contained a considerable amount of fiction was recognized by the more critical Greeks, such as Plato the philosopher  in the 5th-4th century BCE. In general, however, in the popular piety of the Greeks, the myths were viewed as true accounts. Although people of all countries, eras, and stages of civilization have developed myths that explain the existence and workings of natural phenomena, recount the deeds of the gods or heroes, or seek to justify social or political institutions,  the myths of the Greeks have remained unrivaled in the Western world as sources of imaginative and appealing ideas. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in Classical mythological themes.

Consumer products are replete with names from Greek mythology. Nike sneakers are the namesake of the goddess of victory. The website Amazon.com is named after the race of mythical warriors. Numerous high school, college and professional sports teams ( Titans, Spartans, Trojans) also have adopted their names from mythological sources.

The Greeks regarded mythology as part of their history. Together, myth and history represent alternative ways of looking at the past. They provide us  a bigger picture of what motivated their beliefs, fears, hopes and traditions.

What did Sisyphus do to deserve the punishment meted by Zeus, the Greek god ? Apparently, Sisyphus thought he could outsmart the gods and that he was more clever than they were. Thinking that the workings of natural phenomena did not apply to him, he tried to out-maneuver the natural cycle of life.  Defying the natural order of things, he was described by Homer in the "Iliad" as the "most cunning of men."

Sisyphus is long gone but we modern mortals  have created our own version of Sisyphus. They are the folks in politics who  keep making deals when there are no longer deals to be made. They are those honorable people in government who keep enacting and promoting policies that no longer work knowing that taxpayers' money is being wasted. They are the well-meaning  teachers in school who insist that all children must learn the same thing in the same process knowing that everyone is different and endowed with different talents. They are the ever-loving parents who insist on what course of study their children should pursue even though they already know that it might not be what their children want nor it is within  the children's capacity. These teachers and parents are going in the same direction  as if they  are in collaboration to quelch  the talents and creativity that children are gifted with, squandering any kind of benefits these young minds could bring to society in the future. It is equivalent to rolling the "boulder up the hill",  the  "boulder" that keeps rolling down over and over again. Either they have not come to the understanding that it doesn't work and never will, or they just refuse to embrace reality.

Myths we may say,  are just that. But they are based on historical facts and possess the elements that characterize  mortal beings like us—elements that are seen in  real life that can be useful lessons. Such lessons  from the past should prompt us  to alter the ways we are handling the present and urge us to take a different route to the future. Where we are now is on the treadmill...never reaching .. never arriving. It's an endless pursuit...on the same slope rolling the boulder up the hill...a boulder that keeps coming down.  It's defying the works of nature, a Sisyphean act.

Noralyn Onto Dudt whose visits to places around the world inspired  her to dig deeper into the history and culture of those places.