What We Do After Someone Dies Makes a Difference in How Good Their Lives Were

Or, it ain’t over until the fat lady sings

The Histories by Herodotus is considered the founding work of history in Western literature. Although not a fully impartial record, it remains one of the West’s most important sources regarding these affairs. A passage from the first book describes the visit of Solon, the Greek legislator, to Croesus, the fabulously wealthy king of Lydia.

Croesus was considered the richest man of his time. To this day Romance languages often use the expression “rich as Croesus” to describe a person of excessive wealth. Solon was known for his dignity, reserve, upright morals, humility, frugality, wisdom, intelligence, and courage.

Solon did not display the smallest surprise at the wealth and splendour surrounding his host, nor the tiniest admiration for their owner. Croesus was so irked by the manifest lack of impression on the part of this illustrious visitor that he attempted to extract from him some acknowledgment. He asked Solon if he had known a happier man than him. “Who is the happiest man you have ever seen?” Croesus expected to hear that he, Croesus, was the happiest of all—for who was richer, or ruled over a greater and more numerous people, than he? Solon dashed Croesus’s expectation by naming an Athenian called Tellus.

Taken aback, Croesus demanded to know the reason for this choice, and so Solon described the key points of Tellus’s life. He lived in a prosperous city, had fine sons, and lived to see each of them have children. He had wealth enough. And he had a glorious death, falling in battle just as the enemy were being routed. The Athenians paid him the high honour of a public funeral on the spot where he fell.

From the story of Tellus, I think Solon’s conception of a happy life can be distilled into ten broad elements:

1. A period of peaceful prosperity for one’s country

2. A life that stretches out far into the third generation

3. One does not lose the complete vigour of a valiant man

4. A comfortable income

5. Well-brought-up children

6. Assurance of the continuation of one’s line through numerous thriving grandchildren

7. A quick death

8. Victorious confirmation of one’s own strength

9. The highest funeral honours

10. The preservation of one’s own name through glorious commemoration by the citizens

As we can see from the last two points, Solon believed that what happens to people after they die—what kind of funeral they have, and how their name is remembered—makes a difference to how good their lives were.

This was not necessarily because Solon imagined that after you die you could look down from somewhere and see what kind of a funeral you were given. There is no suggestion that Solon believed in any kind of afterlife. But it makes me wonder. Does doubting the idea of life after death mean that what happens after you die doesn’t affect how good your life was?

When I think about this, I go back and forth between two different ideas. One idea is that something only matters if you notice it or experience it in some way. The other idea is that what really matters is whether your wishes are fulfilled, even if you don’t know about it or aren’t alive when they happen.