Schopenhauer paraphrased: The contrast between the Greek and the Christian idea of death is strikingly presented on an antique Greek sarcophagus, which exhibits in relief, a series of ceremonies from attending a wedding, to the evening when a torch lights the happy couple home. Compare with that the Christian coffin, draped in mournful black and surmounted with a crucifix! The significance of these two ways of finding comfort in death lies in their opposition to each other, but each is right. The one points to the affirmation of the will to live, certain of life for all time, however rapidly its forms may change. The other, in the symbol of suffering and death, points to the denial of the will to live, to redemption from this world, the domain of death and devil. Between the affirmation and the denial of the will to live, Christianity is in the last resort right. 410
