30 - Sisyphus

Hey guys, I hope you’re doing alright. I’m Hamidreza Ahmadi and this podcast is brought to you by lingophoenix. Let’s talk about a myth today, guys, one which is as inspiring as it is thought-provoking. The myth of Sisyphus is a tale of a man who cheated Death (Thanatos) twice. By Zeus, He’s doomed to an eternal punishment. Many people find it a very relatable story as they can easily identify with Sisyphus. I hope you’ll enjoy this podcast. See, Zeus had nothing against punishing mortals to teach others a lesson. He is quite temperamental and very vengeful. Once King Sisyphus revealed one of Zeus’s secrets to Asopus, a river god. The secret was the location of Asopus’s daughter whom Zeus had kidnapped. Sisyphus did this in return for a river that Asopus made spring up in the land Sisyphus ruled. As I said, Zeus isn’t cool with being messed with. He sends Thanatos, AKA death, to kill the dude. So Death comes to chain our brother, Sisyphus, in hell. But Sisyphus has tricks up his sleeves and puts death in chains. After this, no one died on Earth anymore, and Ares, the god of war, couldn’t have fun. It’s interesting how war and death collaborated. Anyway, Ares comes to Thanatos and says, bro, no one is dying and wars are not just fun anymore. Please come back. Ares frees Death and hands Sisyphus over to him. But the King knew this was coming. He had told his wife not to give him a proper burial. Some versions of the story say that he asked his wife to throw his dead body into a river so that he could go to the queen of hell to grant him his final wish which was to go back to Earth so that he can die properly by offering sacrifices to gods. Naturally, he didn’t keep his promise and lived to a ripe old age. Here, the asabi Zeus comes back. Enraged and exasperated, he vowed to make an example out of Sisyphus so that no man would ever revolt against him. His punishment was severe and never-ending. Zeus’s punishment for Sisyphus was rolling a boulder, which is a huge stone, up a mountain only to see it roll back down over and over and over again. There are different interpretation of the story. Some say that king Sisyphus is the disk of sun rising in the east and setting in the west. Some say the name Sisyphus is noteworthy as it imitates the noise we make when we inhale and exhale signifying Sisyphus’s frustration and fatigue. But, some see the story of Sisyphus an allegory or tamsil for human condition who are condemned to do a futile task over and over again. In his essay, the myth of Sisyphus, “Albert Camus compares humanity’s futile search for meaning and truth in a meaningless and indifferent universe. He says, ”one must imagine Sisyphus happy" as "The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart." A Sisyphean task is one that is impossible to complete. All our lives we try to find the perfect prescription for living a perfect life, but it sure is a Sisyphean task. I hope you enjoyed this podcast, and if you did, don’t hesitate to share it. Thanks for listening, and talk to you soon.

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30 - Sisyphus is an episode from Lingo Phoenix's Podcasts.

This episode is 00:03:27 long.

This episode was published on Sep 14, 2021.

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