The origin of the word "sisyphean"

The word "Sisyphean" comes from the story of Sisyphus, a clever but deceitful king in Greek mythology.Sisyphus was the king of  a city in ancient Greece. He was known for being very intelligent but also very cunning and dishonest. He often tricked gods and humans to get what he wanted.

Once in the underworld  he lied to Hades (the ruler of the underworld). he needed to go back to the world of the living.

Hades allowed it, but once Sisyphus returned, he refused to come back to the underworld. 

The gods eventually caught Sisyphus and punished him for eternity. His punishment was he had to push a massive boulder up a steep hill in the underworld.

However, every time he reached the top  the boulder would roll back down  forcing him to start over.

No matter how hard he worked, he could never complete his task.

he had to do a meaningless, repetitive task forever, with no way to escape.

From Sisyphus' punishment, we get the word "Sisyphean", which means a frustrating job that never seems to be finished or a task that takes a lot of effort but has no real reward.

Examples:

Cleaning a messy house with kids around can feel like a Sisyphean task—it never truly ends!