 Through the classical influence on modern culture, tasks that are both laborious and futile are therefore described as Sisyphean ().Linguistics Professor R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a pre-Greek origin and a connection with the root of the word ' (σοφός, "wise").German mythographer Otto Gruppe thought that the name derived from ' (σίσυς, "a goat's skin"), in reference to a rain-charm in which goats' skins were used.