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Camus and Taylor on The Myth of Sisyphyus. Sisyphyus’s punishment. Sysiphus is the ‘futile laborer of the underworld’ where he must roll a rock to the top of a mountain for all eternity and the stone would fall down of its own weight—and he had to roll it back up all over again.
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Sisyphyus’s punishment Sysiphus is the ‘futile laborer of the underworld’ where he must roll a rock to the top of a mountain for all eternity and the stone would fall down of its own weight—and he had to roll it back up all over again.
Two Origin Stories Origin Story 1: He commits certain acts of ‘levity’. Zeus/Jupiter carries off the daughter of Aesopus. Sisyphus tells Aesopus he will tell him where his daughter is if he gives water to the citadel of Corinth. He is punished for ratting out Zeus by the rock rolling.
Second Origin Story • S. wants to test his wife’s love. He asks her to cast his unburied body into the middle of the public square—The unburied in Greek mythology are not allowed to enter the underworld. He wakes up in underworld and asks to go back to chastise his wife. Once he’s back, he refuses to go down again. So he is grabbed by Mercury and punished by the rock rolling scenario. --What does this show about S’s character? How does it differ from the first scenario?
Third Story • Homer tells us he put Death in chains. Pluto (king of the underworld) resented the emptiness of the underworld and sent Ares/Mars to liberate Death. • But he wasn’t foolish. C. says Homer tells us S. was “the wisest and most prudent of mortals.” (79) • What’s the common thread between these stories? • Camus says “his scorn of the gods, his hatred of death” makes S “the absurd hero.”
Sisyphus Rolling the Rock • When S gets to the top of the hill, the rock rolls back down again. C says: “it is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself!...That hour like a breathing space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness…If this myth is tragic , that is because the hero is conscious…The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” (79-80) • Why is S at the top interesting? • How does consciousness make S both tragic but also capable of victory? • Is it true that there is “no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn”?
How Can Sisyphus Be Happy? • Sisyphus has joy. He is happy. How can he have joy and be happy? What does this mean for the rest of us? (80) What is it to live ‘without appeal’? Is this a good way to live?
Taylor “The Meaning of Life" • Some interpretations of the Sisyphus myth. • His task is meaningless and nothing comes of it. • “It symbolizes man’s eternal struggle and unquenchable spirit, his determination always to try once more in the face of overwhelming discouragement.” (135) • Other images: A relay of a person transporting a stone between 2 people and the 2nd person always returns the stone to where the 1st person picked it up. One group of prisoners digs a hole that the other group of prisoners fills in. • The depressing aspect of all these stories is not necessary the pain of the person but the pointlessness so the activity.
Purpose and meaningfulness • Taylor says that if Sisyphus were rolling stones to build a temple “a beautiful and enduring temple” then the activity would have a point. (136) • Is Taylor right about that? A second alteration: The gods implant in Sisyphus a compulsive desire to roll stones. Is this merciful as Taylor says (give that he has to roll the stones?)
Is this meaning? • “However it may appear to us, Sisyphus’ fate now does not appear to him as a condemnation, but the very reverse . His one desire in life is to roll stones, and he is absolutely guaranteed its endless fulfillment….his life is now filled with mission and meaning, and he seems to himself to have been given an entry into heaven…” (136) What would Camus say about this?
Meaninglessness • “Meaninglessness is essentially endless pointlessness and meaningfulness is therefore the opposite.” (137) • But the examples of Sisyphus provide “the suggestion of how an existence that is objectively meaningless…can acquire a meaning for him whose existence it is…” • What is objective meaninglessness? • Is acquiring meaning here good enough?
The cycle of nature • The larvae in caves in NZ have a luminous tail that traps moths. They are nourished and then grow up to be the moths that other worms eat. (138) • “All living things present essentially the same spectacle.” (138) • “The point of any living thing’s life is..nothing but life itself.” (138) • Life is like a “vast machine” which we are part of. • We are constantly engaged in activity. Our labors do not have a point. • “Our achievements, even though they are often beautiful, are mostly bubbles…those that do last [pyramids] soon become mere curiosities…” (139) So we are basically Sisyphus.
Transience, entropy • Sometimes you find a ruined, broken down house… (p. 139) • “And if the question “What for?” is now asked, the answer is clear: So that just this may go on forever.” (139) • But what is ‘just this’?
The Meaning of Life • Suppose Sisyphus had a strong desire to do what he was doing. Suppose he had a deep interest in what he was doing. In fact, if he finished with the task of building a temple and then had nothing to do, that would be truly terrible. How would we explain this as the meaning of life?
