WEBVTT

00:00:08.290 --> 00:00:12.839
Whether it’s being chained to a burning 
wheel, turned into a spider,

00:00:12.839 --> 00:00:15.920
or having an eagle eat one’s liver,

00:00:15.920 --> 00:00:18.625
Greek mythology is filled 
with stories of the gods

00:00:18.625 --> 00:00:23.377
inflicting gruesome horrors 
on mortals who angered them.

00:00:23.377 --> 00:00:26.384
Yet one of their most famous 
punishments is not remembered

00:00:26.384 --> 00:00:33.212
for its outrageous cruelty, 
but for its disturbing familiarity.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:33.212 --> 00:00:38.980
Sisyphus was the first king of Ephyra, 
now known as Corinth.

00:00:38.980 --> 00:00:44.096
Although a clever ruler who made his city 
prosperous, he was also a devious tyrant

00:00:44.096 --> 00:00:49.410
who seduced his niece and 
killed visitors to show off his power.

00:00:49.410 --> 00:00:55.962
This violation of the sacred hospitality 
tradition greatly angered the gods.

00:00:55.962 --> 00:00:58.508
But Sisyphus may still have 
avoided punishment

00:00:58.508 --> 00:01:03.919
if it hadn’t been for his 
reckless confidence.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:03.919 --> 00:01:08.495
The trouble began when Zeus 
kidnapped the nymph Aegina,

00:01:08.495 --> 00:01:12.450
carrying her away in the form 
of a massive eagle.

00:01:12.450 --> 00:01:18.413
Aegina’s father, the river god Asopus, 
pursued their trail to Ephyra,

00:01:18.413 --> 00:01:20.575
where he encountered Sisyphus.

00:01:20.575 --> 00:01:25.095
In exchange for the god making
a spring inside the city,

00:01:25.095 --> 00:01:30.043
the king told Asopus which way 
Zeus had taken the girl.

00:01:30.043 --> 00:01:35.687
When Zeus found out, he was so furious
that he ordered Thanatos, or Death,

00:01:35.687 --> 00:01:42.417
to chain Sisyphus in the underworld 
so he couldn’t cause any more problems.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:42.417 --> 00:01:46.691
But Sisyphus lived up to 
his crafty reputation.

00:01:46.691 --> 00:01:48.289
As he was about to be imprisoned,

00:01:48.289 --> 00:01:52.917
the king asked Thanatos to show him 
how the chains worked

00:01:52.917 --> 00:01:57.880
– and quickly bound him instead, 
before escaping back among the living.

00:01:57.880 --> 00:02:04.106
With Thanatos trapped, no one could die, 
and the world was thrown into chaos.

00:02:04.106 --> 00:02:07.815
Things only returned to normal 
when the god of war Ares,

00:02:07.815 --> 00:02:14.192
upset that battles were no longer fun, 
freed Thanatos from his chains.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:14.192 --> 00:02:18.203
Sisyphus knew his reckoning was at hand.

00:02:18.203 --> 00:02:21.545
But he had another trick up his sleeve.

00:02:21.545 --> 00:02:27.574
Before dying, he asked his wife Merope
to throw his body in the public square,

00:02:27.574 --> 00:02:32.043
from where it eventually washed up on 
the shores of the river Styx.

00:02:32.043 --> 00:02:35.884
Now back among the dead, 
Sisyphus approached Persephone,

00:02:35.884 --> 00:02:38.321
queen of the Underworld, and complained

00:02:38.321 --> 00:02:44.034
that his wife had disrespected him 
by not giving him a proper burial.

00:02:44.034 --> 00:02:48.438
Persephone granted him permission to go
back to the land of living

00:02:48.438 --> 00:02:54.397
and punish Merope, on the condition that 
he would return when he was done.

00:02:54.397 --> 00:02:58.065
Of course, Sisyphus refused 
to keep his promise,

00:02:58.065 --> 00:03:03.874
now having twice escaped death
by tricking the gods.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:03.874 --> 00:03:05.766
There wouldn’t be a third time,

00:03:05.766 --> 00:03:10.886
as the messenger Hermes dragged
Sisyphus back to Hades.

00:03:10.886 --> 00:03:13.906
The king had thought he was 
more clever than the gods,

00:03:13.906 --> 00:03:17.145
but Zeus would have the last laugh.

00:03:17.145 --> 00:03:20.947
Sisyphus’s punishment was 
a straightforward task

00:03:20.947 --> 00:03:24.599
– rolling a massive boulder up a hill.

00:03:24.599 --> 00:03:30.996
But just as he approached the top, the 
rock would roll all the way back down,

00:03:30.996 --> 00:03:34.469
forcing him to start over

00:03:34.469 --> 00:03:40.964
…and over, and over, for all eternity.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:40.964 --> 00:03:46.232
Historians have suggested that the tale 
of Sisyphus may stem from ancient myths

00:03:46.232 --> 00:03:51.238
about the rising and setting sun, 
or other natural cycles.

00:03:51.238 --> 00:03:55.717
But the vivid image of someone condemned 
to endlessly repeat a futile task

00:03:55.717 --> 00:04:00.533
has resonated as an allegory 
about the human condition.

00:04:00.533 --> 00:04:03.023
In his classic essay
The Myth of Sisyphus,

00:04:03.023 --> 00:04:07.187
existentialist philosopher Albert Camus 
compared the punishment

00:04:07.187 --> 00:04:11.445
to humanity’s futile search 
for meaning and truth

00:04:11.445 --> 00:04:14.676
in a meaningless and 
indifferent universe.

00:04:14.676 --> 00:04:19.490
Instead of despairing, Camus imagined 
Sisyphus defiantly meeting his fate

00:04:19.490 --> 00:04:25.206
as he walks down the hill to begin 
rolling the rock again.

00:04:25.206 --> 00:04:27.869
And even if the daily 
struggles of our lives

00:04:27.869 --> 00:04:31.666
sometimes seem equally 
repetitive and absurd,

00:04:31.666 --> 00:04:36.689
we still give them significance and value 
by embracing them as our own.