Yeah That's Kinda The Point Of The Phrase

Yeah that's kinda the point of the phrase

"One must imagine Sisyphus happy" because it's absurd.

If I remember correctly, The whole point of Albert camus's philosophy (absurdism) is this idea that you laugh along with the absurdity of life and death. That you keep going even when things get rough cause to give up is to admit spiritual defeat. Albert camus loves this idea that you spite God.

And there is no other figure in life that shows the exact point then Sisyphus.

He tricked death(Thanatos), he tricked the queen of the underworld(Persephone), and for one more fuck u to the gods he smiles though his torture. A punishment given to him by the keeper of death(hades), the only figure of death he's left to personally fuck off.

“One must imagine Sisyphus happy”

Must we?

The entire point of the Sisyphus myth is that he was a tyrant king that killed many of his guests and attempted to kill his own brother. When it was his time to die he kidnapped Thanatos the god of death then once he was brought to Tartarus he tricked Persephone into letting him back to the world of the living. The point of the boulder was a punishment for his multiple offenses. Imagining him happy is almost against the whole point of him pushing the boulder in the first place. Also There is no point to it. There is no reward if he ever got to the top, and there’s no chance of him succeeding anyways. The boulder was cursed to fall down once he got near the top It is physically impossible. What would the point of it be if he was happy.

This was a good use of my two hours

Op so real for this.

The humans in Greek Mythology are the mega rich and powerful:

In my college classes people are often shocked when I tell them my favorite part of Greek mythology is the gods themselves and I'm not a big fan of the humans.

99% of my classmates prefer the humans in mythos, especially the ones that stick it to the gods like Sisyphus and feel bad for humans like Kassandra and Helen who have been wronged by the gods because "they're just like us." My classmates and teachers hate the gods and don't understand why anyone in modern times would want to worship such violent and selfish beings whenever I point out there are still people who worship them. They hold onto the idea that people in mythology embody the human experience of being oppressed by terrible gods and fate and we should feel bad for them because "they're human just like us" but they forget that the people in Greek Mythology are NOT just like us. They are more relatable to medieval royalty, colonizers and ultra rich politicians who make laws and decisions on wars and the fates of others, especially the poor and the very vulnerable.

Every hero or important human in Greek Mythology is either some form of royalty or mega rich politician/priest-priestess (of course this is with the exception of people who are explicitly stated to be poor like the old married couple in the myth where Zeus and Hermes pretend to be panhandlers). All of them have an ancient Greek lifestyle more relatable to Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and especially to British royalty during the British empire, than the average person.

All of them.

Odysseus, Patroclus, Theseus, Helen of Troy, Kassandra, Diomedes, Agamemnon, Perseus, Hercules, Aeneas, Paris, Any human who has a divine parent or is related to one, etc. Although sometimes the story omits it, it is heavily implied that these are people who own hundreds or even thousands of slaves, very poor farmers and the tiny barely there working class as royal subjects.

They are the ones who make laws and whose decisions massively affect the fates of so many people. So no, they can't just be forgiven for some little whim, because that little whim affects the literal lives of everyone under their rule. By being spoiled they've just risked the lives of thousands of people and possibly even gotten them killed like when Odysseus' audacity got every single slave and soldier in his ships killed or when Patroclus as a kid got upset and killed another kid for beating him at a game. (A normal person wouldn't kill another person just for winning a game but royalty and those who think they're above the law do it all the time, plus the class status of the child wasn't mentioned but the way he didn't think he'd get in trouble implies the kid was of lower class, possibly the child of a slave or a foreign merchant.)

The gods get a bad reputation for punishing the humans in mythology but, if not them, who else is going to keep them accountable when they are the law?

And whose to say the humans beneath them weren't praying to the gods in order to keep their masters in check?

Apollo is the god of slavery, Zeus is the god of refugees, immigrants and homeless people, Ares is the protector of women, Artemis protects children, Aphrodite is the goddess of the LGBT community, Hephaestus takes care of the disabled, etc. It wouldn't be surprising if the gods are punishing the ultra rich and powerful in these myths because the humans under their rulership prayed and sent them as they did historically.

Every time someone asks me if I feel bad for a human character in a myth, I think about the many lives affected by the decision that one human character made and if I'm being completely honest, I too would pray to the gods and ask them to please punish them so they can make more careful decisions in the future because:

They are not just like us.

We are the farmers, a lot of our ancestors were slaves, we are the vulnerable being eaten by capitalism and destroyed by the violence colonialism created. We are the poor subjects that can only pray and hope the gods will come and correct whatever selfish behavior the royal house and mega rich politicians are doing above us.

And that's why I pray to the gods, because in modern times I'm dealing with modern Agamemnons who would kill whatever family members they have to in order to reach their end goal, I'm dealing with everyday modern Achilles who would rather see their own side die because they couldn't keep their favorite toy and would gladly watch their subjects die if it means they eventually get their way. The ones that let capitalism eat their country and it's citizens alive so long as it makes them more money. These are our modern "demigods," politicians who swear they are so close to God that they know what he wants and so they pass laws that benefit only them and claim these laws are ordained by God due to their close connection just like how Achilles can speak to the gods because of his demigod status via his mother.

Look at the news, these are humans that would be mythical characters getting punished by Greek gods which is why anything Greco-Roman is jealousy guarded by the rich and powerful and is inaccessible to modern worshippers because Ivy League schools like Harvard and Cambridge make sure to keep it that way. That's what we're dealing with. These are the humans these mythical beings would be because:

In our modern times the humans in mythos would be the politicians and mega rich that are currently ruining our society and trying to turn it into a world where only the rich can manipulate wars and laws, just like they do in mythology.

Fuck them.

I literally have so much more to add about my disdain for them and I didn't even touch on the obvious ancient Greek propaganda.

idk how to tell y’all this but a Greek god not having a lot of lovers isn’t indicative of their morality. And a god not having a lot written about them isn’t indicative of their morality. It’s actually really hard to find them good or bad. Because they are gods. And they do terrifying things to cement their authority. And there are many legends. And many of those legends are allegorical. Some of those legends weren’t even part of the actual religious perception. This is not exclusive to the Greek pantheon. I did not grow up around infinite Christian denominations that hated me in infinite separate ways to pretend I think otherwise

What if Clover were in Waterfall

OH MY GOD IT'S FINALLY DONE!! I thought it would be a good idea and THIS TOOK ME 6 DAYS TO COMPLETE IT so hope y'all like it!

thought exercise:

men kissing

big hairy men

men cuddling

a couple of dudes (tender embrace)

a group of guys kissing one another

soft feminine men

a pile of men

men showing bashful affection towards eachother

men