The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [98]
3. Croesus for his part wished to impress so renowned a man as Solon.
4. He lodged him in his palace in opulent rooms, and ordered his servants to show him the immense palace treasuries.
5. When Solon had seen all this, he was given a splendid dinner, seated at the right hand of Croesus;
6. And when the eating was over and fresh wine was poured, the king addressed Solon as follows.
7. ‘Solon of Athens,’ he said, ‘we have heard much of your wisdom and your travels through many lands, seeking knowledge of all things.
8. ‘I am curious to ask you: who is happiest of all the people you have encountered in your life?’
9. And Croesus expected to be told that he himself was the happiest because he was the richest and most powerful among kings.
10. But Solon answered with truth rather than flattery, saying, ‘The happiest man I have ever encountered is Tellus of Athens.’
11. Astonished and disappointed, Croesus asked in what way Tellus was happiest.
12. Solon said, ‘First, because in his time Athens was flourishing;
13. ‘Second, he had sons who were both beautiful and good, and he lived to see each of them have children of their own;
14. ‘And third, after a life lived in comfort and uprightness, and in favourable standing among all who knew him,
15. ‘He died a courageous and honourable death, fighting alongside his countrymen during the war between Athens and Eleusis.
16. ‘He was given a public funeral where he fell, and was paid the highest civic honours.’
17. Thus did Solon admonish Croesus by the example of Tellus.
18. But Croesus privately discounted this story, thinking Tellus no more than a good citizen who, though deserving praise,
19. Could not compare with the glory of a rich and universally admired king.
20. So he asked again, ‘Who seems to you happiest after Tellus?’
21. To this Solon replied, ‘I would give second place to two men jointly, the brothers Cleobis and Biton.
22. ‘They were Argives, modestly well off, but of enormous physical strength, who had both won prizes at the Games for their prowess.
23. ‘It once happened that there was an important festival which their mother wished to attend, but the oxen did not return from the fields in time to draw her cart thither;
24. ‘So the sons hitched themselves to it, and pulled it from their home to the distant place of festival, bearing their mother along.
25. ‘Great crowds saw this feat; the men standing by praised the brothers’ athleticism, the women praised their mother for having such dutiful sons;
26. ‘And their mother herself applauded them before all the company, and laid claim on their behalf to a monument for their filial affection.’
27. Angrily Croesus said, ‘Do you set at nothing all my happiness, that I am to come below private men,
28. ‘Even men who have not much beyond mere muscles and the respect for a mother that we expect from everyone?’
29. ‘O Croesus,’ replied Solon, ‘you asked me about the condition of man, and I know that human lives are full of trouble and change.
30. ‘A long life witnesses many things that one would rather not witness. A man has not so many as a thousand months to live, no, not so many as nine hundred;
31. ‘And each day of those months can bring events unlike any other day, and all manner of accidents.
32. ‘I see that you are very rich, and rule many lands and peoples, but what you wish me to answer you I cannot until I have heard of your death,
33. ‘For only then can I judge whether your life was happy.
34. ‘For we can call no man happy until he is dead, when the good and bad of his life has been added up and understood.
35. ‘Do not call the rich man happy then; call him fortunate; do not call him happy until all things have been reckoned up, and the true balance of his life is weighed.
36. ‘For assuredly, the rich man is no nearer happiness than the poor man who has all he needs.
37. ‘Indeed the rich man has more worries and responsibilities, and more to lose, than the poor man;
38. ‘And therefore more reasons not