English equivalent of "send the demon to fill a wicker basket with water" [closed]
In Catalan language, there is a popular refrain that talks about someone meeting a demon, and the demon offer the person to perform any tasks they want them to do, which the demon will gladly do for them, but when they are finished doing the tasks, if they can't think of any more work to do for the demon, the demon will take their soul.
In this popular refrain, the person cleverly "sends the demon to fill a wicker basket with water" in the nearby fountain. Because the water trickles down the bottom of the wicker basket as its being poured from the fountain, the demon is stuck trying to accomplish that task, and thus the person can keep their soul.
I was wondering if there is this equivalent in English of "sending the demon to fill a wicker basket with water", to mean that you send someone to do a meaningless task that, by definition, is impossible to complete.
Solution 1:
It sounds like a Sisyphean task, as explained by MW:
requiring continual and often ineffective effort
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king who annoyed the gods with his trickery. As a consequence, he was condemned for eternity to roll a huge rock up a long, steep hill in the underworld, only to watch it roll back down. The story of Sisyphus is often told in conjunction with that of Tantalus, who was condemned to stand beneath fruit-laden boughs, up to his chin in water. Whenever he bent his head to drink, the water receded, and whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches moved beyond his grasp. Thus to tantalize is to tease or torment by offering something desirable but keeping it out of reach - and something Sisyphean (or Sisyphian, pronounced \sih-SIFF-ee-un) demands unending, thankless, and ultimately unsuccessful efforts.