A Fox or Two

I just finished Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus. In reading all this ancient literature, I'm realizing how similar a lot of it is to the wisdom literature of the Bible, but with a lot less hope and assurance that God actually cares about us. For example, I just read this passage where the Chorus is bemoaning how short and full of suffering is:

"Who craves excess of days,
     Scorning the common span 

     Of life, I judge that man
A giddy wight who walks in folly's ways. 

For the long years heap up a grievous load,
    Scant pleasures, heavier pains, 

    Till not one joy remains
For him who lingers on life's weary road 

   And come it slow or fast,
     One doom of fate 

     Doth all await, 

     For dance and marriage bell, 

     The dirge and funeral knell.
Death the deliverer freeth all at last.

Not to be born at all 

Is best, far best that can befall, 

Next best, when born, with least delay 

To trace the backward way.
For when youth passes with its giddy train, 

   Troubles on troubles follow, toils on toils,
     Pain, pain for ever pain; 

     And none escapes life's coils. 

     Envy, sedition, strife,

Carnage and war, make up the tale of life. 

Last comes the worst and most abhorred stage
    Of unregarded age,
Joyless, companionless and slow,
     Of woes the crowning woe."

Our culture has a lot to learn from the ancient world as we continue to naively expect the government, education, and science to make our lives comfortable and problem-free.