CULTURE
The Rock Of Sisyphus
‘Carry On Pushing’
“We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking.”
― Albert Camus, ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’
The Myth of Sisyphus is speaking to me personally once more. It does every now and again when I am in a deeper reflecting place. Albert Camus was very fond of it as a metaphor for humanity striving each day and suffering and the philosophical message it can provide of consolation for us in a world of existential temporality and conditionality. Sisyphus triumphs over suicide through his labourious persistence and determination.
This is his God-determined immortal punishment and has undoubted metaphorical and philosophical resonances with the punishment of Prometheus. There is a gigantic rock and a process that is repeated every single day. But for an immortal, each day is meaningless so it is surely the undoubted captivity and being bird food that is the intolerable torture. For Sisyphus, the repetition is the punishment and in a way, he is ‘chained’ to his rock. Where it goes he goes.
When Sisyphus pauses at the top the rock inevitably rolls down the hill and he must start all over again. The eaten liver regrows and the process starts again. But Prometheus is a God and can…
