Why couldn't Sisyphus just, you know, NOT push the boulder?

[mjr]

So I was thinking about this the other day.

As far as I know, in the story of Sisyphus, he was "doomed" to push a boulder up a hill, and when it got to the top, it would roll back down. For eternity. He was told he could leave if he was able to get the boulder to the top of the hill (which, of course, he couldn't), and thus he continually tried to push it up the hill.

But as far as I know, he wasn't in a torturous place (i.e. he wasn't being tortured, per se). So he could, in theory, just decide to not push the boulder up the hill. Right?

I asked a friend about it, and he didn't elaborate beyond "That wasn't an option".

[dalesys]

From the L-Space wiki: "Gods, of course, play games with the fates of men. The game they play is somewhere between Dungeons and Dragons, Risk and Chess, with Monopoly and Battleships thrown in for good measure along the way. Don't think the game is complicated though; gods don't have the patience for complex games. They prefer games that are short and violent."

It could be much worse than boulder-rolling... Prometheus comes to mind...

[Kittish]

I think the base assumption is that he WANTS OUT, badly enough to keep pushing that bloody boulder through all eternity. Me, I can't think of anything that would motivate me enough that I wouldn't go "eeh, I'm just gonna sit here for a while" after maybe a few tries. Or go wandering off in search of a shovel to dig out a dip at the top of that hill. Hell, (heh) dig it out with my hands if no other tools were available.

[Ironclad Alibi]

If Sisyphus did get the boulder to the top, it would just crest the hill and roll down the other side. At least it would be a change of scenery. Maybe.