Last Week Merope, This Week Sisyphus
If an ars poetica is a meditation on the art of poetry, then ars decipio is a meditation on the art of deception.
Deception was Sisyphus’ great skill. Sometimes with flair, sometimes an elegant trickery — but always a form of deception in one way or another. Often he was tricking one of the Greek gods or monsters, but sometimes he applied his skills to humans.
He probably would have loved the artwork in this week’s featured image –La Conversacion by French sculptor Etienne. It would have appealed to Sisyphus’ sense of playful trickery.
But not everyone appreciated his deceptive abilities.
When he finally died (a second time, see last week for more about the first time, and Merope’s involvement in his resurrection) he was sentenced by Zeus to continually rolling a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll right back down as soon as he got it to the top. It’s a task he can’t trick or talk his way out of. All he has is time to think about how he’d love to get around this task. Except he can’t.
It probably doesn’t take Sisyphus long to conclude he hasn’t got a way out of endlessly rolling the boulder uphill. And after that realization, what does he do?
He probably moves on to justifying his behavior. Maybe he hopes he’ll get a chance, someday, to talk one of the gods into freeing him. So he’d better have his argument ready, right? And what is Sisyphus’ logic? That of course he was a bit on the deceptive side. Deception is an art form. It’s just his nature. He can’t help himself. In fact, he’s just being his best self. Doing what comes naturally, so to speak.
When we mean to say someone is doing something they shouldn’t, but doing it well, we often say they are raising (lying/cheating/stealing/etc.) to an art form. Sisyphus would probably find that a compliment.
He’d love the idea that what he was doing was art.
Speaking about art, Günter Grass, the German writer and Nobel laureate, like many writers and artists, was of two minds about art, simultaneously. He said art was both necessary and pointless.
Günter Grass
Art is so wonderfully irrational, exuberantly pointless, but necessary all the same.
Sisyphus likely feels the same. Of course, there is always the question of who is deceiving whom, or whether Sisyphus is deceiving himself.
Ars Decipio
–Sisyphus
Convincing, conniving,
means believing your own lies,
long enough, anyway,
that others agree without
coercion. Like any art,
pointless and necessary.
I could no more resist
crafting the perfect
beguilement than bees
forgo necessary stings.
If you enjoyed Ars Decipio
You’ll find more of my poems on this blog or in the collection Stars Crawl Out From Their Caves, which is available in both ebook and print.
Missed a poem of the week? Links to prior weeks are on this page.
I’m traveling this week on business, so instead of Monday morning, you are getting this week’s blog post on Saturday night. Have a great week!