... one of those tortures where a task has constantly to be begun again, like that of the Danaids or of Ixion.

Jealousy, whose eyes are bandaged, is not only powerless to see anything in the surrounding darkness; it is one of those tortures where a task has constantly to be begun again, like that of the Danaids or of Ixion.

quoted in:
Proust, Marcel
"The Prisoner" (In Search Of Lost Time, Volume 5)
p. 135, Penguin Classics, 2003



So, how did the Greeks get it so right? And so long ago?
How did they work out that life consisted of such repetition that one felt like Ixion strapped to a never-ending turning wheel of fire (http://www.pantheon.org/articles/i/ixion.html), forever pronouncing "Be Nice To He Who Looks After You". Mind-numbing, horrifying repetition.

"They say that by the commands of the gods Ixion spins round and round on his feathered wheel, saying this to mortals: 'Repay your benefactor frequently with gentle favors in return'." [Pindar, Pythian Odes 2.20] (http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Ixion.html)


Ixion - Tormented For Eternity By A Flying (Burning) Wheel