It's All About Perspective
Perspective - the art of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of height, width, depth and position;
A particular attitude towards or way of regarding something - a point of view
Camus wrote of The Myth of Sisyphus: “I see that man going back down, with a heavy yet measured step towards the torment of which he will never know the end.” Yet, by forging dignity out of his struggle he learned, like Sophocles’ Oedipus, “Despite my ordeal, all is well.”
The Myth of Sisyphus is a living myth, as it is the myth of the struggle that is life. From Ovid’s Metamorphosis to Camus’ rendering of the tale, is a journey of a man who is a rebel and who laughs in the face of fate.
It is (the struggle) the price we pay (and we pay it regardless) for a life of passion, the load is thus made considerably lighter. Learning to accept our trials is in part learning to love the struggle, learning to be comfortable uncomfortable - or perhaps comfortably numb to quote Pink Floyd - which is similar to Nietzche’s amor fati (but this is for another time)!
Here I pause on how this myth can still be applied to life today. So, what is it that Sisyphus does that is so important for us to take on? How do we learn to love the struggle?
The ancients already laid out the path for us to follow.
Sisyphus, ruler of Corinth, was regarded as a wise and prudent man, especially in his dealings with the gods.
One afternoon though he chanced upon Zeus with the lovely maiden Aegina, daughter of the river god Asopus. Before Sisyphus could make any remark or even think, Zeus abducted the girl. Asopus was distraught and Sisyphus was compromised between his loyalty to the gods and the truth he witnessed. He was also dealing with the fact that his citadel’s cisterns were running dry. So Sisyphus risked everything by trading a divine secret for a perennial spring.
Asopus’ fury nearly drowned Zeus as the rivers around Corinth roiled, but he disguised himself as a rock so that the water could flow off him. Upon discovering who betrayed him, Zeus turned to his brother Hades for help. Thus Sisyphus was fated for the underworld. The “crafty one” grew restless in the darkness and devised a plan to chain Hades to his stone throne. And so, with the god of death enchained, nobody on earth was dying. This upset Ares, the god of war, and so this is how Zeus found out about Hades’ humiliating predicament and allowed Ares to save him.
As all this took place, Sisyphus was pleading with Persephone (Hades’ part-time bride), as he was mourning his wife Merope - one of the Pleiades constellation sisters. Sisyphus asked to return to Corinth for three days to fulfil his duties as husband and father, as well as to arrange a funeral service for his family to grieve properly. Persephone guided him to the world above. Once Sisyphus smelt the fresh air of the living world, he had a change of heart on his terms of parole. When Hades came calling Sisyphus chose the warm sun and the sea, to the underworld.
Hades dispatched the messenger Hermes to collar Sisyphus and bring him before the Judges of the Dead. For his hubris and scorn, Sisyphus was condemned the most seemingly useless task, in a place of sky-less space and depthless time, echoing with the cries of the damned. In such a place he would shoulder a stone up the mountain slope in Tartarus. Sisyphus swore never to allow the gods to see in him any defeat by despair due to this aimless task. He understood that his fate was in his hands and as such he could be superior to it. This moment or realisation is what Camus called “the hour of consciousness”.
Such a myth reveals the inner meaning of our outer struggles. This is the beauty in our ordeals. Going back to the myths, one may find something new - a thought, a lesson - every time. This is also a rare kind of hope. Sisyphus provides for us a transformation and gives us hope for the possibility of transcendence in the monotony and melancholy of our tasks.
Transcendence lies in the moment Sisyphus watches the boulder roll down again and turns to walk back down the hill.
“The hour is like a breathing space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of these moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks towards the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock.”
This might also be the realization that the price extracted from him by the gods is a fair one. It implies that there is always a price to pay for our passionate convictions. In the end, all that matters is our attitude. It also reminds us that we can only hold ourselves responsible for our situations - if we do so then we will be able to break free of fate and let our soul break free of death. The mythic message is that only love can conquer death.
