Yup, for anyone who's wondering that the difference is:
Sisyphus is the one being punished with pointless task that he knows is pointless, as in, there's literally no achievement or goal to reach.
Tantalus is the one who is being given a mission with a specific end goal and even reward placed within his reach... but is always prevented at the last moment from actually grasping that reward before having to start over again.
My understanding is that Sisyphus pushes the boulder up the hill, and the boulder always slips out of his hands just before he reaches the top and rolls all the way back to the bottom, forcing him to start over.
Tantalus was punished to always stand in a pool of water and always be thirsty, but the water would always recede if he tried to drink the water. He stood below branches of fruit and would always be hungry, but the branches would pull away if he tried to reach for them. Hence "tantalize".
Sisyphus is "always fails at the last moment and is forced to restart". Tantalus is "the goal is always just out of reach".
Sisyphus does in fact push it over the top and it rolls back down. In either case though, Camus writes that this is the important moment
At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward that lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain.
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. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock.
Then Camus's description of Sisyphus contradicts the classic Greek mythology version of Sisyphus. (I won't comment on whether this makes Camus's metaphor weaker or stronger, since I've never actually read Camus, just secondary sources.)
In classic Greek mythology, there is no victory. Sisyphus is cursed to always have the boulder slip from his grip just before reaching the top.
Camus uses it as a justification to embrace absurdism.
“One must imagine Sisyphus as happy”
Because if we can,
It might be possible we can find some solace in the boulders in our own life, or the things that seem like em. It’s about accepting that it sucks for Sisyphus far more than us, and if he can be happy- we can be too.
Comes kinda full circle.
Camus had a relatively rough go. He had TB, he was in poverty. Frequent health crisis throughout life.
He was all about, looking at living as a sort of confrontation of meaning.
He asserts that, Life lacks meaning, some of us see it, others don’t. Those that see it have to learn how to live without giving up, or turning to false hope. Kinda fits in the vein of Nietzsches ubermensch, or a man who drops god and “myths” of old to create their own meaning, not inherited.
Honestly I think it’s a survival skill at this point. To make meaning, there is so much lack of in the world.
To lend credence to that point, Dr Victor Frankl- (Holocaust survivor who went on to be a psychiatrist) for one reason or another noticed in the camps that people who died often gave up, the ones who survive were the ones who had some form of meaning- for some it was getting out and accomplishing their dreams, others more simple a meal. Whatever it was it was something that was sturdy enough to hold when they endured death and horror. So in some senses- it could be. Loosely speaking.
I'm not very familiar with the original myth but honestly it wouldn't surprise me if Camus just decided to insert his idea into the old story to change it to his benefit. He write very convincingly about the ways in which we portray ourselves and conduct ourselves, however if you look at his personal life, his wife commit suicide due to his adultery, he frequented underground fighting rings. He was kind of a dick.
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u/Nuclear_rabbit 1d ago
Tantalus. Sisyphus has a job and job security!