Some said that Sisyphus had done his job of porterage long enough; Tantalus would be dying of thirst, if he were not relieved; the drag must be put at last on wretched Ixion's wheel.

Just so when Sisyphus at last once gets there with his boulder, He finds the labour all in vainit rolls down off his shoulder.

The second by Euripides with the Alexander, Palamêdês, Troädes and Sisyphus, a Satyr-play.

And at thy name the pains of Hell grew light; Ixion's wheel stopp'd in its weary rounds, The rock of Sisyphus forgot to roll,

With a gesture of disgust, he turned to stare behind him at the crowd on its way to Daphne, making such a business of pleasure as reduced the pleasure to a toil of Sisyphus (who had to roll a heavy stone perpetually up a steep hill in the underworld.

Autolycus, Sisyphus, Thersites are all Satyr-play heroes and congenial to the Satyr atmosphere; but the most congenial of all, the one hero who existed always in an atmosphere of Satyrs and the Kômos until Euripides made him the central figure of a tragedy, was Heracles.

Tis Sisyphus his toyle that with a stone Doth doe what surely for ease must be done.

169; labor in vain, labor lost, labor of Sisyphus; lost trouble, lost labor; work of Penelope; sleeveless errand, wild goose chase, mere farce.

&c (drone) 683 V. be useless &c adj.; go a begging &c (redundant) 641; fail &c 732. seek after impossibilities, strive after impossibilities; use vain efforts, labor in vain, roll the stone of Sisyphus, beat the air, lash the waves, battre l'eau avec un baton

Difficulty N. difficulty; hardness &c adj.; impracticability &c (impossibility) 471; tough work, hard work, uphill work; hard task, Herculean task, Augean task^; task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labor, tough job, teaser, rasper^, dead lift.

Oh! to go on, day by day, in such a work of Sisyphus, believe me, is no small sacrifice of any intelligent man to fatherland and humanity.

For commonly they that, like Sisyphus, roll this restless stone of ambition, are in a perpetual agony, still perplexed, semper taciti, tritesque recedunt (Lucretius), doubtful, timorous, suspicious, loath to offend in word or deed, still cogging and colloguing, embracing, capping, cringing, applauding, flattering, fleering, visiting, waiting at men's doors, with all affability, counterfeit honesty and humility.

He also employs them in a Euhemeristic fashion, explaining them as popular allegories of actual human experiences, citing the myths of Tantalus and Sisyphus, for example, as expressions of the ever-present dread of punishment for crimes.

"That Sisyphus's foot-tub should have been still in existence.

We have the mortification to learn, from the Dedication of "Aureng-Zebe," that Dryden only wanted encouragement to enter upon the composition of an epic poem, and to abandon the thriftless task of writing for the promiscuous audience of the theatre,a task which, rivalled as he had lately been by Crowne and Settle, he most justly compares to the labour of Sisyphus.

I desire to be no longer the Sisyphus of the stage; to roll up a stone with endless labour, which, to follow the proverb, gathers no moss; and which is perpetually falling down again.

MAKING A SUGGESTION TO SISYPHUS.

I should examine the Wisdom of that great Prince, who carried such mighty Forces against Troy; and argue with Ulysses and Sisyphus, upon difficult Points, as I have in Conversation here, without being in Danger of being condemned.

It is where Sisyphus is represented lifting his Stone up the Hill, which is no sooner carried to the top of it, but it immediately tumbles to the Bottom.

He exerted the utmost of his skill to unite the ministers, and to cement the apertures of the state: but he found his pains fruitless, his arguments unavailing, and his endeavours, like the stone of Sisyphus, rolling back upon himself.

He felt that Sisyphus-like he was forever rolling, rolling a gigantic stone which, failing of its purposerecoiled on him, rolling back down a precipitous incline, and crushing him beneath its weight ... only to release him again ... to leave him free to endure the same torture over and over again ... and yet again ... forever the same weight ... forever the self-same, intolerable agony....

Now let Ixions wheele stand still a while, Let Danaus daughters now surcease their toyle, Let Sisyphus rest on his restlesse stone, Let not the Apples flye from Plotas sonne, And let the full gorg'd Vultur cease to teare The growing liver of the ravisher; Let these behold my sorrows and confesse

A vast proportion of the labour which mankind has expended throughout the ages has been no better spent; it has been like the stone of Sisyphus eternally rolled up hill only to revolve eternally down again, or like the water poured for ever by the Danaids into broken pitchers which it could never fill.

In the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers the labors of Maurice are compared to those of Sisyphus

BELLER`OPHON, a mythical hero, son of Glaucus and grandson of Sisyphus; having unwittingly caused the death of his brother, withdrew from his country and sought retreat with Proetus, king of Argos, who, becoming jealous of his guest, but not willing to violate the laws of hospitality, had him sent to Iobates, his son-in-law, king of Lycia, with instructions to put him to death.