Sisyphus2.0006_Marcell

Sisyphus2.0006_Marcell

ogcma Sisyphus1.0000_Reid
Classical Sources:
Homer, Od. 11.593-600
Aeschylus, Sisyphus Petrokylistes, fragment
Sophocles, Sisyphus(?), fragment
Euripides, Sisyphus (?), fragment
Alcaeus 38.5.10=fr. 110.5-10 ML p.360
Ovid Met. 4.460-68, 10.44, 13.26-33
Lucretius 3.995-1006
Apollodorus Libr. 1.9.3
Hyginus Fabulae 60, 201
Pausanias, 2.1.3, 2.5.1

Jankovics Marcell, 1974, "Sisyphus", an animated short film.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/tYBlAon683s

This is a really remarkable depiction of the Sisyphus myth. Click the link above (or here) to make it run. A critical difference between the classical telling by Homer (Od. 11.593-600) and Marcell's adaptation lies in the accumulation of boulders at the top of the slope. Marcell's Sisyphus is creating, imposing order upon his landscape, rising above futility. The Homeric Sisyphus deals with only one boulder, which tumbles back to the plain incessently.

Abstract black brush strokes forming stylized Arabic calligraphy on a white background

Thanks to Ishel Brimhall, F2013, for this reference.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.