Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Labour of Sisyphus

Image via Wikipedia

Labour of Sisyphus: King Sisyphus, a noted ancient Greek trickster, was made to roll a huge boulder up a steep hill, but before he could reach the summit, the rock always rolled back down, and he had to begin again. The exasperating nature of this punishment was visited on King Sisyphus because of his arrogant belief that his cleverness surpassed that of Zeus. The king of the gods, Zeus, therefore demonstrated his own cleverness by forcing Sisyphus to labour for eternity at this pointless task.

It's an interesting illustration of the ancient Greek's attitude to deities and might even explain to some extent the peculiar attitude held by some modern religious groups about the nature of their particular gods.

As a result of this myth, pointless or interminable tasks are often described as Sisyphean.

'When Julie announced her determination to turn her four acres of wilderness into a modern garden with not a weed in sight, Terrence laughed and told her she'd set herself a Labour of Sisyphus.'

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Stanza

Stanza: noun - a group of lines of verse used as a basic metrical unit of a song or poem consisting of a series of such groups; a verse; in some Greek and Latin metres - a group of four lines; in Italy - an apartment, chamber or room, especially one in the Vatican; a half or other session of a game or sporting contest.

Here's an example, but beware: I don't consider myself a poet.

Suburban

Suburban every Sunday man

polishing his white work’s van

when the stranger gives a smile

he would rather run a mile

than take the risk to say hello

to a man he does not know

Suburban weekday workday man

starting up his white work’s van

slams the door on wife forlorn

cranks the engine parps the horn

doesn’t give a damn he’s said

for the neighbours still in bed

Saturday suburban man

in the street his white work’s van

puts his feet up for the telly

fills his glass and fills his belly

lets the wife go shop up town

if she’ll shed her weeknight gown

Suburban every someday man

now he’s lost his white work’s van

lost the wheels and lost the job

lost his pride become a slob

all the days from now the same

bear the stigma feel the shame.

Pic: Approaching Goodmanham in East Yorkshire.