'The Cure at Troy' Seattle Times "I am not a playwright," Seamus Heaney states emphatically. And yet, on rare occasions, this Nobel Prize-winning poet has turned his hand to drama — most notably in "The Cure at Troy," now in production at Seattle Repertory Theatre.
A Soul-Splitting 'Trojan Women' San Jose Mercury News When Ellen McLaughlin first forged her piercing iteration of "The Trojan Women" in the mid-'90s, it was far more than a play. Performed by grief-stricken Balkan refugees, themselves women exiled to a strange land, it was a ritual exorcism of the tragedy of war.
Mythology Inspires Baby Names BBC Elaine Romaeo, 35, and her husband Tony, 51, wanted to give their brood more exciting names than their own. The eldest is Romeo Casanova Valentino.
April 16, 2008
Remember Sisyphus? Actually, I hadn’t thought of him for many years, until for some reason he popped into my mind again—maybe it was because I was facing a mountain of paper on my desk. But one thing is for certain—he’s still up there doing his thing.
For those who need their memories jogged, Sisyphus is the ultimate example of perseverance. He was that Greek mythology fellow, who defied the gods and put "Death" in chains so that no human needed to die.
When Death was eventually liberated and it came time for Sisyphus himself to die, he managed, through an incredible slight of hand, to escape. His joy was short-lived. Once captured, the gods decided that for his punishment he would have to push a rock to the top of a mountain, watch it roll down, and do it again and again again. For all eternity.
Sisyphus’s plight so impressed Albert Camus that he wrote an essay about him. Well, not quite about him per se, but about the absurdity of the human condition.
I interpreted it to something that Peggy Lee asked: "Is that all there is?”
I realize all this might be a bit heavy with your morning cup of coffee, but in his essay on Sisyphus, Camus introduced his philosophy of the absurd: man's futile search for meaning, unity and clarity in the face of an unintelligible world devoid of God and eternity. Camus presents Sisyphus's ceaseless and pointless toil as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at jobs in factories and offices.
"The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious,"he wrote.
The final chapter compares the absurdity of man's life with the situation of Sisyphus, by concluding, "The struggle itself is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
In that way, Camus concluded that Sisyphus was an absurd hero. Because, I assume, he only concentrated on what he was doing, not the stupidity of it.
Maybe I’ve been performing Sisyphus-like activities too long to think outside the box,
but if I get the meaning, and I probably don’t, when he refers to the "struggle itself"
being enough to occupy oneself, I took it to mean he’s so involved concentrating on the task that he doesn’t think about the meaningless of life—namely that we’re all going to die in the end.
If that’s right, then the only confusing part for me is that Sisyphus is condemned to his punishment for eternity. If that's true, then he’s not going to literally die. Although one can conclude he’s not exactly in clover.
Okay, it’s your turn. What's your take?
Which Side Are You On? New Sisyphus Question One: Which of the following views on the fundamental nature of Islam presented by a president of the United States of America fits more closely with actual events and your own personal knowledge?
Sisyphus Top 11 The Nihlist in Golf Pants Top 11 Things Hillary Clinton has in Common with Rocky 11. Hillary brokered Irish peace plan; Rocky ended the Cold War by defeating Ivan Drago in Moscow
Sisyphus Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology Sinner condemned in Tartarus to an eternity of rolling a boulder uphill then watching it roll back down again.
Okay, so now you youngsters can get a view from... further up that hill? Anyway, from the vantag...
— Spinner
April 16, 2008 4:23 PM
Who's your favorite character from Greek mythology?
32% 14% 25% 18% 11%
My understanding of the existential absurdity of life, and a life apparently without meaning, is to choose your own "meaning" and in choosing take responsibility. We must be free to choose or someone else will choose for us. But if someone else chooses, can we still embrace the task and find happiness?
Perhaps the "journey" we are on is where we find "meaning". The "goal" is not that important because ultimately the goal is death. Death is an event without any meaning because you won't experience it.
I like to compete in marathons and triathlons. I like the struggle of the event. The medal at the end is anti-climatic. The same in business for me. The process of achieving an outcome is exciting. The outcome itself has it's own reward: money. But the passion is in the struggle not the monetary reward. The money is the measure of the struggle.
Sisyphus is interesting because, if Camus, is right, Sisyphus is happy even though the struggle was forced upon him. Perhaps Vicktor Frankl had it right when he said the survivors in life have found meaning. Those who don't, fade away and die.
We can choose God, the Devil, Nihilism, whatever. But we must take responsibility, find meaning, embrace our choice, and live.
Although I must say, in all honesty, that I've told my children that I prefer to have a purpose in life and I leave the meaning of my life to those who remain here after my death. My purpose I guess is to follow in Sisyphus's footsteps. As purposes go, it's not all that bad.
thecatalyst said...
I choose to view life not so much as a struggle, but more of a practice. At times the occupations we choose may seem a bit repetitive in nature, but it is through repetition that we become competent and eventually excel at whatever it is we chose to pursue.
It is a very interesting question as to whether we can find satisfaction in performing a task that was not of our own choosing, but rather assigned to us.
I suppose by now Sisyphus has found the best route up the hill. He has his rock in a groove, and is an excellent rock roller. He is confident that he can roll that rock up the hill faster than anyone else. Is he truly happy, or does he wish that the gods would have let him do something that better suited his interests, like counting grains of sand?
I found this link, hope you enjoy!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5MdFdAe_JY - 82k
thecatalyst said...
Thanks La Donna, very cool.
To thecatalyst,
Thank You!
To: La Donna,
I checked out your link, too. Thanks! It was great.
To: the catalyst,
Perhaps Sisyphus was the inspiration to make omelets from broken eggs or lemonade from lemons. After your comments, I think I like him even more. Thanks to you, too
komet said...
Maybe Death was trying to teach Sisyphus that death was not something to evade and that it was probably a gift rather the never-ending punishment of rolling a boulder uphill for all eternity.
Spinner said...
Okay, so now you youngsters can get a view from... further up that hill? Anyway, from the vantage point of someone who has come closer to the the end and can now look back upon my life as well as the lives of my family, I can say that I truly feel sorry for those that feel that their life was simply one of repetitive drudgery. For goodness sakes! Listen to your inner voice and find what is your passion! I knew I wanted medical research from the time I was 9yo and I pursued that with vigor and ended up making some satisfactory contributions. And now that I have retired from that field, I have discovered another that I find very meaningful and can pursue on a part time basis and again, I feel that I am making a difference. My husband didn't find his passion until he was 28, but still changed course and has made fairly significant contributions in his field. He is still saying that he hopes he can keep his wits long enough to get everything done he has on his list. Every day is another exciting day to get more accomplished. My son and daughter-in-law both knew what they wanted at 4yo (!) and while my d-in-l is now a stay-at-home mother and loving it, she definitely accomplished what she set out to do before making her decision to back away from it. My son has been able to make a mark in a most esoteric field. All in all, we have met life's challenges and found it fun. I don't think there was more than a few days in which we felt that we were mindlessly pushing that rock up the hill.
I have always found Sisyphus a very sad character indeed and a lesson to us all to find that which drives our souls and immerse ourselves in it. Thus we end up not looking forward to death because it would give us relief from the mindless toils of life, but race it to the end and thus knowing that when death does take us, we had done all we could with what we were given.
more on the honor rollTo: Spinner,
Well said. I found my passion and continuing success in a mid-life second career after a modestly successful first career. My passion overcame the "struggle" it could have been. I survived marital problems, separation, and divorce on the way to that second career and success. (Perhaps I should call it "fulfillment" instead of success.)
I became a new and different person.......I wouldn't say I was "born again", but I did find my true self and my purpose in life. It took the first half of my life making omelets and lemonade to do it.
Thanks for sharing your life with all of us.
Spinner, I definitely agree with you. Dying is when you run out of time, you have more to do, just not the time.