"One must imagine Sisyphus happy"

I am personally ambivalent about the story of Sisyphus. Quick summary: Sisyphus was condemned by the gods to roll a heavy stone up a hill, then let it fall back to the plain and begin all over again, the idea being that there is nothing worse than laboring for eternity at an entirely meaningless task.

There is the sense of tragedy, in a Greek compulsion sense of tragedy, about the story because Sisyphus is compelled to raise the stone and let it fall for all eternity. But, there is another element of tragedy, which is sometimes referred to as the Christian tragedy of choice, but I think it also applies here, wherein Sisyphus's choices in life forced him into compulsory futility in death.

At least Sisyphus has a purpose. He has a place in the world. It is a purposeless purpose, though, and therein lies the irony. If the purpose for which we live is in actuality meaningless, what then is our true purpose? Sisyphus knew that he had always to return and push the rock back up after letting it fall. Isn't it more tragic not to know that your life has no purpose?

Thanks to quixote for this awesome short story about Sisyphus - definitely worthwhile. I love this quote: "Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent." Camus argued that if the myth is tragic, it was in knowing one's fate - the consciousness of futility. But he concluded that in actuality, Sisyphus was happy. I believe this is because he sees Sisyphus's fate not as something pre-ordained by fate, but as something he chose, absurd though it may have been.

Camus writes, "There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night." - showing that Sisyphus had to push up the stone and watch it roll back down - the hope of finally succeeding is like believing that humans can conquer death. In this, I'm not sure if he's seeing the myth the way the Greeks perhaps would have - I don't know enough about it to make a judgment. But it's certainly a take on the myth that I hadn't thought of before.

Edit: I do NOT study modern history, and avoided any good modern Western civilizations courses (through no fault of my own) and didn't realize this was such a seminal work. Oh well.