Sisyphus Cooling

The Mary of Cimabue, Eve, Magdalene, the Jesters, Saint George, even the dragon are condemned to ceaselessly repeat their actions as the punishment of Sisyphus. And then what happened after Sisyphus cooled down? He started again...

'At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments towards that lower world whence he will have to push it up again towards the summit. He goes back down the plain.

It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step towards the torment of which he will never know the end. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciouness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks towards the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock.'

from The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942 - Albert Camus

'All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter.

Try again. Fail again. Fail better.'

from Worstward Ho, 1983 - Samuel Beckett