Thread #25117776
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Sissypuss - why do people misunderstand his myth?
In Hellenism, whether Hesiodic or Orphic, the ultimate goal is achieving Transcendence and Immortality, Divinity/Daimonhood. Heracles is the perfect Man whose conquered labors lead to him achieving a place on Olympus. And Orphism has a Metempsychosis for the pursuit of purity and perfection akin to the Pythagoreans.
This in general contradicts Christian views of plight, Gilgamesh's pessimism as well as modern materialism. Its why Reneissance Alchemy was based on Byzantine Greek works.
Sissypuss was wise and crafty, and almost always had a plan to outwit the Gods, he was a real Gary Stu. Sissypuss' story was that he tricked Thanatos, leading to no one on Earth dying for a while. He was given the Boulder Punishment because it was the best way the Gods could outsmart his defiance of their will - by showing what separation of Man and Divine incurs - rolling the boulder up a hill over and over only for it to fall over and over. It's ironic, as him 'stopping Thanatos' ultimately meant nothing as life on Earth was always 'Unsatisfying'/not good enough, as the goal for man is Divinity and Immortality.
Somehow Albert Camus sees Sissypuss punishment as empowering + most people look at it and see it as meaning 'nothing matters, nihilism' when it's quite the opposite. Why is that ??
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>>25117776
> In Hellenism, whether Hesiodic or Orphic, the ultimate goal is achieving Transcendence and Immortality, Divinity/Daimonhood.
I don’t think so. The Homeric ideal was to show off your excellence - to he so awesome that you would be recorded in history. But even if you were an amazing hero like Achilles you would still be a shade in the afterlife. It was a pretty grim metaphysics.
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>>25117788
There's 3 vaguely implied 'views' of Hellenism, Homers, Hesiods and Orpheus'. What you're saying is only true in Homers but not in Hesiods or Orpheus.
I think it was Socrates that talks down Homer as being a 'watered down version' while praising Orpheus and wanting to meet him in the after life.
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Perhaps that is the original story, I am not disagreeing with you there.
However, Camus doesn't take the original story into account in his philosophy but rather focuses on Sisyphus' current situation.
Camus doesn't view Sisyphus' life as empowering - he simply sees it as a metaphor for the human condition. He argues life is inherently absurd: like Sisyphus, we all spend our lives our lives doing the same thing over and over - we wake up, eat, sleep - until we die. Life is completely absurd! We should see this absurdity of life, laugh at it and keep living.
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