Death and Water

The story of Sisyphus was a tragic one. He killed his nephew, tried to escape death, chained up Hades, and then was sent to Tartarus for one of the worst punishments possible. My head groggily goes back to Mme. Graceous clasees, when we were talking about him. Josh abruptly said out of nowhere that he thought that the punishment was actually one of the best he could think of. Graciously she wasn’t in the room for she would have whooped him, but I had forced him to explain. He clearly stated that working on something, doing something, whether you're being forced to or not, is brave especially when you know you're going to fail, that you just keep on doing it, that you just keep on giving it all your effort. And for that one moment while the boulder is rolling down the hill and before he is forced to go down and fetch it to try again, Sisyphus was free. His mind was free. The gods did not control fate. Or maybe they did, which brought us to brief discussion of Oedipus. We ended up agreeing that the gods have no control over a humans mind. They might twist and change the future to their liking, but the human always had control over their mind, their emotions, maybe not their actions, but they had control over how they perceive their actions. And if Sisyphus perceives his actions not as punishment but as hard work, he is free from the gods’ control, they have no power over him, and justly, that’s everything one could ever have. I remember never looking at Josh the same again. I knew he was brilliant, but I never knew he thought liked that. I knew he hated Mme. Graceou, but I never knew he resented the gods. “You wouldn’t do that prince, you don’t have the guts” one of the men say, and I’m pulled back. I know their names, but I don’t know which is which, and frankly I don’t care enough to find out. “Are you questioning me Aeacus?” One down. “You have company your highness” another man says, smiling crookedly at me. I raise my chin and squint my eyes, doing my best to glare at him, holding my ground, showing no fear, that’s one of the things I was best at. It seemed to work because his smile vanished and he took a panicked step back. “And how does that have anything to do with it, Rhadamanthus?” He ask the other man, eyeing him coolly. That’s when the last one, Minos, finally gets up and walks over to us. He looked like his brother Aeacus, but had blue eyes instead of green, like Percy's. And I wonder how such sweet eyes like Percy’s could end up on such a monster of a man. “Our little Nico here won’t tell his father anything because he had the nerve to bring his little girlfriend daughter of Poseiden to the underworld” he says to the other two, “she has no business being here and you know it! And if you wish to get her out alive, if you wish for us to support you in your crazy backwards plan to help her escape, and I know you need our help son, then you might not want to tell your father.” He says, a threat underlying his words. Nico and Minos glare at each other for a good long time, before Nico finally swallows and slightly drops his chin. Minos smiles triumphantly, his yellow teeth taking up his entire face. “Now, now, Nico don’t look so disappointed, you should know better than to mess with an immortal. Now, why don’t you tell me why you are here.” he says.

Notes