Illustration Friday: Legendary

According to Greek mythology, the mischievous Sisyphus was cursed to endure an eternity of rolling a boulder up a hill, watching it roll down again, and rolling it back up.  Albert Camus,a French existentialist author, wrote his own version of the story in an essay entitled, The Myth of Sisyphus, in which Camus described Sisyphus as an absurd hero.  

“When the images of earth cling too tightly to memory, when the call of happiness becomes too insistent, it happens that melancholy rises in man's heart: this is the rock's victory, this is the rock itself. The boundless grief is too heavy to bear. These are our nights of Gethsemane. But crushing truths perish from being acknowledged… There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night. The absurd man says yes and his effort will henceforth be unceasing… The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus

Sisyphus is a legendary figure who is simply stuck in a rut, destined forever to work futilely at a task that he himself did not choose.  As such, he signifies a part of humanity that we must all cope with (as we all have something - however great or small - in our lives that we must face regardless of whether we want to or not), and this is why Sisyphus is my legendary hero.

As for my illustration... Sisyphus, the diligent worker that he was, had tried many different methods of approaching his task.  Here, he has fashioned a club out of stone in hopes of slamming the boulder back up to the top of the mountain... Therefore, it is important to note that one, Sisyphus, mythological figure of Ancient Greece, was the true inventor of the game of golf.