Editing Sisyphus (section)

==Interpretations==
[[File:Johann-Vogel-Meditationes-emblematicae-de-restaurata-pace-Germaniae MGG 1020.tif|thumb|upright=1.0|alt=Black and white etching of Sisyphus by Johann Vogel |Sisyphus as a symbol for continuing a senseless war. [[Johann Vogel (poet)|Johann Vogel]]: ''Meditationes emblematicae de restaurata pace Germaniae'', 1649]]
According to the [[solar theory]], King Sisyphus is the disk of the sun that rises every day in the east and then sinks into the west.<ref name="eb1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Sisyphus |volume=25 |page=161}}</ref> Other scholars regard him as a personification of waves rising and falling, or of the treacherous sea.<ref name="eb1911"/> The 1st-century BC [[Epicureanism|Epicurean]] philosopher [[Lucretius]] interprets the myth of Sisyphus as personifying politicians aspiring for political office who are constantly defeated, with the quest for power, in itself an "empty thing", being likened to rolling the boulder up the hill.<ref>''[[De Rerum Natura]]'' III</ref> [[Friedrich Welcker]] suggested that he symbolises the vain struggle of man in the pursuit of knowledge, and [[Salomon Reinach]]<ref>''Revue archéologique'', 1904</ref> that his punishment is based on a picture in which Sisyphus was represented rolling a huge stone [[Acrocorinthus]], symbolic of the labour and skill involved in the building of the Sisypheum. [[Albert Camus]], in his 1942 essay ''[[The Myth of Sisyphus]]'', saw Sisyphus as personifying the absurdity of human life, but Camus concludes "one must imagine Sisyphus happy" as "The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart."  In his 1994 ''The Body of Myth'', [[J. Nigro Sansonese]],<ref>[[J. Nigro Sansonese|Sansonese, J. Nigro]]. ''The Body of Myth''. Rochester, 1994, pp. 45–52. {{ISBN|0-89281-409-8}}</ref> building on the work of [[Georges Dumézil]], speculates that the origin of the name "Sisyphus" is onomatopoetic of the continual back-and-forth, susurrant sound ("siss phuss") made by the breath in the nasal passages, situating the mythology of Sisyphus in a far larger context of archaic (see [[Proto-Indo-European religion]]) trance-inducing techniques related to breath control. The repetitive inhalation–exhalation cycle is described esoterically in the myth as an up–down motion of Sisyphus and his boulder on a hill.

In experiments that test how workers respond when the meaning of their task is diminished, the test condition is referred to as the Sisyphusian condition. The two main conclusions of the experiment are that people work harder when their work seems more meaningful, and that people underestimate the relationship between meaning and motivation.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ariely|first=Dan|title=The Upside of Irrationality|year=2010|isbn=978-0-06-199503-3}}</ref>

===Literary interpretations===
[[File:Punishment sisyph.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|alt=Painting of Sisyphus by Titian |''[[Sisyphus (Titian)|Sisyphus]]'' (1548–49) by [[Titian]], [[Prado Museum]], Madrid, Spain]]
* [[Homer]] describes Sisyphus in both Book VI of the ''[[Iliad]]'' and Book XI of the ''[[Odyssey]]''.<ref name="Homer Iliad VI 152ff" /><ref name="Odyssey, xi. 593" />
* [[Ovid]], the Roman poet, makes reference to Sisyphus in the story of [[Orpheus and Eurydice]]. When Orpheus descends and confronts Hades and Persephone, he sings a song so that they will grant his wish to bring Eurydice back from the dead. After this song is sung, Ovid shows how moving it was by noting that Sisyphus, emotionally affected for just a moment, stops his eternal task and sits on his rock, the Latin wording being ''inque tuo sedisti, Sisyphe, saxo'' ("and you sat, Sisyphus, on your rock").<ref>Ovid. ''Metamorphoses'', 10.44.</ref>
* In [[Plato]]'s ''[[Apology (Plato)|Apology]]'', Socrates looks forward to the after-life where he can meet figures such as Sisyphus, who think themselves wise, so that he can question them and find who is wise and who "thinks he is when he is not."<ref>Apology, 41c</ref>
* [[Albert Camus]], the [[French Algeria|French]] [[absurdism|absurdist]], wrote an essay entitled ''[[The Myth of Sisyphus]]'', in which he elevates Sisyphus to the status of absurd hero.
* [[Franz Kafka]] repeatedly referred to Sisyphus as a bachelor; [[Kafkaesque]] for him were those qualities that brought out the Sisyphus-like qualities in himself. According to Frederick Karl: "The man who struggled to reach the heights only to be thrown down to the depths embodied all of Kafka's aspirations; and he remained himself, alone, solitary."<ref>[[Frederick R. Karl|Karl, Frederick]]. ''Franz Kafka: Representative Man.'' New York: International Publishing Corporation, 1991. p. 2</ref>
* The philosopher [[Richard Taylor (philosopher)|Richard Taylor]] uses the myth of Sisyphus as a representation of a life made meaningless because it consists of bare repetition.<ref>Taylor, Richard. "Time and Life's Meaning." ''Review of Metaphysics'' 40 (June 1987): 675–686.</ref>
* [[Wolfgang Mieder]] has collected cartoons that build on the image of Sisyphus, many of them [[editorial cartoons]].<ref>Wolfgang Mieder. 2013. Neues von Sisyphus: Sprichtwortliche Mythen der Antike in moderner Literatur, Medien und Karikaturen. Vienna: Praesens.</ref>
* [[Hollis Robbins]], reading Ovid against Camus, proposes that the punishment was not a punishment but a recognition and making legible of Sisyphus's essential nature: his compulsion to push against the rules.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Robbins |first1=Hollis |title=Sisyphus, Unbothered |url=https://hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com/p/sisyphus-unbothered |website=Anecdotal Value |publisher=Substack |access-date=27 March 2025}}</ref>