Sisyphus (Greek Σίσυφος; transliteration: Sísuphos; IPA: 'sɪsɪfəs), in Greek mythology, was the son of Aeolus and Enarete, husband of Merope, and King/Founder of Ephyra (Corinth). According to some (later) sources, he was the father of Odysseus by Anticlea, before she married her later husband, Laertes. He was the father of the Corinthian king Glaucus by Merope. He was said to have founded the Isthmian games in honour of Melicertes, whose body he found lyin ...

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• Sisyphus - 'Sisyphean task' or 'Sisyphean challenge'

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As a punishment from the gods, in the underworld, Sisyphus was compelled to roll a big stone up a steep hill; but before it reached the top of the hill the stone always rolled down, and Sisyphus had to begin all over again (Odyssey, xi. 593). This cycle continued on for eternity. As a result, pointless or interminable activities are often described as Sisyphean. The reason for his punishment is not mentioned in Homer, and is obscure. According to some, he had revealed the designs of the gods to mortals; according to others, he ...

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Sisyphus, Sisyphus - 'Sisyphean task' or 'Sisyphean challenge'

Read more here: » Sisyphus: Encyclopedia II - Sisyphus - 'Sisyphean task' or 'Sisyphean challenge'

SISYPHUS

In his The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus gives us a vision of Sisyphus that he claims is heroic: "... at that brief moment, before the stone begins to roll back downhill, Sisyphus triumphs again and again over the gods." I suggest that such a "triumph" is hardly worth mentioning. Indeed, it is no triumph at all, but a pathetic underscoring of Camus' own chronic spiritual depression. For these and other crimes against the human psyche, Camus stands forever indicted.

There is, in fact, a far more satisfying and useful meaning to the story of Sisyphus than Camus was ever brave enough to reach out for. Nor was Camus able to encompass the obvious truth that mortals who incur the wrath of the gods, become themselves semi-divine. For to be touched by the gods, even to be tormented by their cruelties, is to lose one's mortality and partake of the higher life.

Several versions of the story exist, but briefly what happens is that Sisyphus betrays a secret of Zeus in exchange for favors of a less important god. Apparently, even this brief encounter is sufficient to bestow upon him the ability to lock up Death as soon as Zeus hurls him into the underworld. He even manages to wangle permission from Pluto to return briefly to earth in order to conclude some personal business. Once back in life, however, Sisyphus will have nothing to do with the suggestion that he return to Hades.

So Hermes is sent to drag him by the scruff of his neck back to his old moldering grave -- once there to spend forever pushing a stone up to the top of a tall hill. Once reaching the top, the stone would roll down again and he would have to push it up the hill again, ad aeternitatem.

Now what is really happening is quite obvious. In wresting the power from Death, Sisyphus acquires the ability to see what it is that the gods in their mercy have tried to spare us. The mercy of death is forgetfulness, so that we are not obligated to re-experience, to no real purpose, the futility of remembering over and over again the tedium of being born, living and dying. In other words, Sisyphus becomes nothing less than the unwilling turner of the Karmic Wheel of Samsaric Life and Death, from which Buddha would deliver us. Since he refuses to die, Sisyphus is condemned to live forever -- that is, to remember everything. It isn't just that he wants to survive, but that he wants to survive at any cost, and so his punishment is to be granted only the mechanical side of life, stripped of its meaning.

(See also: SISYPHUS , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Sisyphus The crafty; in Greek mythology, a son of Aeolus (the keeper of the winds), the most cunning of all men. He was punished in the underworld by being compelled to roll a heavy stone block up a hill, only upon reaching the summit to have it roll down again, where upon he repeats the processes endlessly.

Some ancient authors say he had betrayed the Mysteries of the gods; so that one intent of the legend was to point out to the masses that betrayal of the secrets of initiation brings inevitable retribution.

It also may illustrate the vanity of human ambitions, which flourish hopefully right up to the point of expected attainment, only to meet with disappointment; again it may refer to certain experiences of the disembodied relics of our personality, doomed to repeat vain acts until the energy which prompted them is worn out.

(See also: Sisyphus , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Hades

(Greek, "the place of the dead")

1)    The brother of Zeus and god of the underworld in ancient Greek belief.

2)    A name denoting the underworld or the astral world or hell, "house of Hades," where the dead lead a bleak existence. Myths about Hades tell of special punishments created for a few, offenders of the gods, e. g. , Sisyphus, Tantalus, and Tityus. It was taught in ancient times that Hades was located beneath the surface of the Earth, that it was both a place of punishment and reward. It was surrounded by the River Styx. The boatman Charon rowed the dead across the river from the world of the living to the world of the dead. It was customary to tip the boatman.

(See also: Hades , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

NIRVANA

As sickness, age and death impel us to recede ever more deeply into ourselves and we discover that the illusory world outside is but the creation of our own minds, we begin to realize the bitter truth that there is no death either. If life is agony, there is no resting, for no sooner dead than ... reborn! And the torment of life must be endured again and again, until even amnesia wears thin and we find that we are nothing more nor less than hapless old Sisyphus himself. And if we pursue things far enough, it must be admitted that there even comes a time when we must accept our identity with the terrible Abraxas. (The final, ironic punishment of the atheist is that he himself, in mournful solitude, must bear the yoke of immortal godhood.)

Now it is that we remember the message of the Buddha -- that there is a way out of the endless cycle of birth and redeath. We can step off the wheel of Karma into Nirvana. Buddhism's goal is Nirvana, or release form the bonds of existence. The Sanskrit word means "blown away" or "blown out," i.e., extinguished, and since rebirth is the result of desire, freedom from rebirth is attained by the removal of desire, so that, for lack of fuel, the torch of rebirth blows out and is no longer passed on. Therefore, we can achieve Nirvana now, in this life. The elimination of egoism and selfless aspiration are some of the ways. That means the end of material existence, the attainment of Being, rather than becoming, and union with Ultimate Reality. The Buddha calls this "unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed," as opposed to the born, originated, created and formed phenomenal world.

(See also: NIRVANA , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Merope (Greek) Daughter of Atlas, one of the Pleiads, mother of Glaucus by Sisyphus.

Also, the foster mother of Oedipus and wife of Polybus of Corinth. {SD 2:768}

(See also: Merope , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

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The Acheron river is in the Epirus region of north west Greece. Acheron translates as "river of woe" and believed to be a branch of the underworld river Acheron over which in ancient Greek mythology Charon ferried the newly dead souls across into Hades. The lake called Acherousia and the river still called Acheron with the nearby ruins of the Necromanteion are found near Parga on the mainland opposite Corfu. Another branch of Acheron was believed to surface at the Acherusian cape (now Eregli in Turkey) and was seen by th ...

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