With the increase of Sisyphus-related memes being shared on Twitter, it raises the question: Don’t you think the ancient Greeks would have loved memes?
What is the story of Sisyphus?
Sisyphus — or Sisyphos — is a character in ancient Greek mythology who was punished by Zeus after trying to trick Death. His punishment was to push a large boulder up a hill every day for eternity, only to find it rolling down to the bottom every time he completed the task.
Evolution of the Sisyphus meme from 2009 till now
Who knows how long people have verbally made fun of Sisyphus, but in terms of internet memes, there’s evidence that one of the first examples occurred as early as 2009. Sisyphus memes are a way for people to satirize the punishing task with a less-than-serious caption.
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The meme theme that was relevant in 2009 and again in 2011 is captioning Sisyphus pushing up the boulder with “They see me rollin.’” The catchphrase blew up in pop culture following rapper Chamillionaire’s 2006 single “Ridin’.”
Read more: yahoo