SISYPHUS: Struggling with yet another boulder.
Sisyphus is King of Corinth. He journeyed to the Desert of the Tartars
to discover the secret of immortality for his people. In doing so he
angered the gods. His punishment is to remain for ever in the desert,
working endlessly at the gods' filtering station. He must push boulder
after boulder of fused metal into a large crater. In The Eternal
Punishment Ulysses encounters Sisyphus. Sisyphus is desperate to escape
and after a brief struggle overpowers Ulysses. He intends to take over
the Odyssey and escape, however things do not go according to plan and he
falls into the crater. Inside Sisyphus discovers that the filtering station
melts down the boulders he pushes into the crater and re-moulds new boulders
which are then rolled to the edge of the crater for him to push in again.
Sisyphus is filled with rage at this discovery, but the gods have spoken
and he is condemned to toil for ever at this useless task.