question: Why is Sisyphus happy with his punishment?
comment: It isn't that he *is* happy with his punishment, but that *we must imagine* him happy with his punishment; it's a metaphor suggesting that in order to be at peace with the absurdity of a meaningless universe we must embrace it's futility and find satisfaction in it's banality.
passages: BULLET::::- King Sisyphus is featured in "Percy Jackson & the Olympians", in "The Demigod Files" story titled "The Sword of Hades", in which Percy Jackson, Thalia Grace, and Nico di Angelo follow the trail of the person that stole the Sword of Hades to Sisyphus' area in the Fields of Punishment. Percy and Nico ask him for advice while Thalia pushes the boulder up the hill. As they leave, Sisyphus begs them to set him free.
  
  BULLET::::- "The Myth of Sisyphus", a 1942 philosophical essay by Albert Camus which uses Sisyphus' punishment as a metaphor for the Absurd
   Section::::Interpretations.:Literary interpretations.
  
  Homer describes Sisyphus in both Book VI of the "Iliad" and Book XI of the "Odyssey".
   In the last chapter, Camus outlines the legend of Sisyphus 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 concocted a deceit which let him escape from the underworld. After finally capturing Sisyphus, the gods decided that his punishment would last for all eternity. He would have to push a rock up a mountain; upon reaching the top, the rock would roll down again, leaving Sisyphus to start over. Camus sees Sisyphus as the absurd hero who lives life to the fullest, hates death, and is condemned to a meaningless task.
   In "Philoctetes" by Sophocles, there is a reference to the father of Odysseus (rumoured to have been Sisyphus, and not Laërtes, whom we know as the father in the "Odyssey") upon having returned from the dead.
  
  Section::::Mythology.:Punishment in the Underworld.
   BULLET::::- Sisyphus is represented in the video game "Let's Play: Ancient Greek Punishment" (2011) and its sequels, in which the player is doomed to live out Sisyphus's punishment in 8-bit form.
  
  Section::::In popular culture.:Literature.
  
  BULLET::::- "Sisyphus" is a dialogue written in the 4th.c. BC and included in earlier editions of Plato's works.
   Section::::Myth of Sisyphus.
  
  In ancient Greek mythology, King Sisyphus was sentenced to roll an enchanted boulder up a hill, only to stand just before the peak and watch it roll itself back down, and to repeat this action forever. This consigned Sisyphus to an eternity of useless efforts and unending frustration, and thus it came to pass that pointless or interminable activities are sometimes described as "Sisyphean".
   Section::::Interpretations.
   In another version, Hades was sent to chain Sisyphus and was chained himself. As long as Hades was tied up, nobody could die. Because of this, sacrifices could not be made to the gods, and those that were old and sick were suffering. The gods finally threatened to make life so miserable for Sisyphus that he would wish he were dead. He then had no choice but to release Hades.
   Sisyphus and his brother Salmoneus were known to hate each other, and Sisyphus consulted with the Oracle of Delphi on just how to kill Salmoneus without incurring any severe consequences for himself. From Homer onward, Sisyphus was famed as the craftiest of men. He seduced Salmoneus's daughter Tyro in one of his plots to kill Salmoneus, only for Tyro to slay the children she bore him when she discovered that Sisyphus was planning on using them eventually to dethrone her father.
  
  Section::::Mythology.:Cheating death.
   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").
   In his book "The Philosophy of Recursive Thinking", German author Manfred Kopfer suggested a viable solution for Sisyphus punishment. Every time Sisyphus reaches the top of the mountain, he breaks off a stone from the mountain and carries it down to the lowest point. This way, the mountain will eventually be levelled and the stone cannot roll down anymore. In Kopfers interpretation, the solution turns the punishment by the gods into a test for Sisyphus to prove his worthiness for godlike deeds. If Sisyphus is able "to move a mountain", he shall be allowed to do what otherwise only gods are entitled to do.
   Section::::Mythology.:Reign.
  
  Sisyphus was the founder and first king of Ephyra (supposedly the original name of Corinth). King Sisyphus promoted navigation and commerce but was avaricious and deceitful. He also killed travellers and guests, a violation of "xenia", which fell under Zeus's domain. He took pleasure in these killings because they allowed him to maintain his iron-fisted rule.
  
  Section::::Mythology.:Conflict with Salmoneus.
   Camus presents Sisyphus's ceaseless and pointless toil as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at futile 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."
   In the essay Camus introduces 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 eternal truths or values. Does the realization of the absurd require suicide? Camus answers, "No. It requires revolt." He then outlines several approaches to the absurd life. The final chapter compares the absurdity of man's life with the situation of Sisyphus, a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. The essay concludes, "The struggle itself ... is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy".
   Camus is interested in Sisyphus' thoughts when marching down the mountain, to start anew. After the stone falls back down the mountain Camus states that "It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end." This is the truly tragic moment, when the hero becomes conscious of his wretched condition. He does not have hope, but "there is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn." Acknowledging the truth will conquer it; Sisyphus, just like the absurd man, keeps pushing. Camus claims that when Sisyphus acknowledges the futility of his task and the certainty of his fate, he is freed to realize the absurdity of his situation and to reach a state of contented acceptance. With a nod to the similarly cursed Greek hero Oedipus, Camus concludes that "all is well," indeed, that "one must imagine Sisyphus happy."
   In Sophocles's play, "Oedipus at Colonus", it is significant that he comes to his final resting place in the grove dedicated to the Erinyes. It shows that he has paid his penance for his blood crime, as well as come to integrate the balancing powers to his early over-reliance upon Apollo, the god of the individual, the sun, and reason. He is asked to make an offering to the Erinyes and complies, having made his peace.
  
  Section::::Modern references and literature.
   It is suggested that Sisyphus symbolizes the vain struggle of man in the pursuit of knowledge. "The Myth of Sisyphus" saw Sisyphus as personifying the absurdity of human life, but concludes "one must imagine Sisyphus happy" as "The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart." Another philosophical interpretation involves the politician's quest for power, in itself an "empty thing".
   Before King Sisyphus died, he had told his wife to throw his naked body into the middle of the public square (purportedly as a test of his wife's love for him). This caused King Sisyphus to end up on the shores of the river Styx. Then, complaining to Persephone, goddess of the Underworld, that this was a sign of his wife's disrespect for him, King Sisyphus persuaded her to allow him to return to the upper world. Once back in Ephyra, the spirit of King Sisyphus scolded his wife for not burying his body and giving it a proper funeral (as a loving wife should). When King Sisyphus refused to return to the Underworld, he was forcibly dragged back there by Hades. In another version of the myth, Persephone was tricked by Sisyphus that he had been conducted to Tartarus by mistake, and so she ordered that he be released.
   Over his head towers a threatening stone (mentioned in Pindar’s 8th Isthmian ode, line 10-12.) like the one that Sisyphus is punished to roll up a hill. This fate has cursed him with eternal deprivation of nourishment.
   Section::::Analysis and themes.:Guilt.
  
  "Oedipus at Colonus" suggests that, in breaking divine law, a ruler’s limited understanding may lead him to believe himself fully innocent; however, his lack of awareness does not change the objective fact of his guilt.
   King Sisyphus also betrayed one of Zeus's secrets by revealing the whereabouts of Aegina, (an Asopid who was taken away by Zeus) to her father (the river god Asopus) in return for causing a spring to flow on the Corinthian acropolis.
   Eventually Ares, the bloodthirsty god of war, grew frustrated with the battles he incited since neither side suffered any casualties. He released Thanatos and handed his captor over to the god. Sisyphus would evade Death a second time by convincing Persephone to allow him to return to his wife stating that she never gave him a proper funeral. This time, Sisyphus was forcefully dragged back to the Underworld by Hermes when Sisyphus refused to accept his death. Sisyphus was sentenced to an eternity of frustration in Tartarus where he rolled a boulder up a hill and it would roll back down when he got close to the top.
   The old man Thestor was sent unknowingly to his daughter to perform the task. Because so many years had passed, the two did not recognize each other and Theonoe gave her father a sword, setting him out to kill the priest. When he had entered, with the sword in hand, he told Leucippe that his name was Thestor who had lost his two daughters (Leucippe and Theonoe) and had come to this pitch of misfortune that he had been ordered to commit a crime.
   The story in the "Mulierum virtutes" is essentially the same, except that the captain is told that the treasure, of silver bowls, gold and some money, was at the bottom of a dry well, which he climbs down into. When Timoclea hears that he has reached the bottom, she throws down rocks on him. Alexander dismisses her without punishment but does not set her or her family free. He instead tells his officers to take special care of them and other renowned families, making sure there is no more abuse.
   Zeus then ordered Death (in Greek, Thanatos) to chain King Sisyphus down below in Tartarus. Sisyphus was curious as to why Charon, whose job it was to guide souls to the Underworld, had not appeared on this occasion. King Sisyphus slyly asked Thanatos to demonstrate how the chains worked. As Thanatos was granting him his wish, Sisyphus seized the opportunity and trapped Thanatos in the chains instead. Once Thanatos was bound by the strong chains, no one died on earth. This caused an uproar especially for Ares (who was annoyed that his battles had lost their fun because his opponents would not die), and so he intervened. The exasperated Ares freed Thanatos and turned King Sisyphus over to Thanatos.
  
presuppositions: Sisyphusis happy with his punishment. Sisyphus is happy with his punishment.
corrections: We need to imagine him happy with his punishment; it's a metaphor suggesting that in order to be at peace with the absurdity of a meaningless universe we must embrace it's futility and find satisfaction in it's banality. We must imagine Sisyphus is happy with his punishment, it is a metaphor.
raw_presuppositions: Sisyphusis happy with his punishment. Sisyphus is happy with his punishment.
raw_corrections: We need to imagine him happy with his punishment; it's a metaphor suggesting that in order to be at peace with the absurdity of a meaningless universe we must embrace it's futility and find satisfaction in it's banality. We must imagine Sisyphus is happy with his punishment, it is a metaphor.