Ecclesiastes 9:4

For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope A different and preferable punctuation gives the rendering: For who is specially chosen, i.e. who is excepted from the common lot of death. To all the living there is hope. The passage has, however, received many conflicting interpretations, of which this seems, on the whole, the best. It was quite after the tone of Greek thought to find in the inextinguishable hope which survives in most men even to the end, even though the hope does not stretch beyond the horizon of the grave, their one consolation, that which made life at least liveable, even if not worth living. So Hope was found at the bottom of Pandora's treasure-chest of evils. So Sophocles:

ἂ γὰρ δὴ πολύπλαγκτος ἐλπὶς πολλοῖς μέν ὄνασις ἀνδρῶν.

"For unto men comes many-wandering hope,

Bringing vain joy."

Antig. 613.

a living dog is better than a dead lion The point of the proverb lies, of course, in the Eastern estimate of the dog as the vilest of all animals (1 Samuel 17:43; Psa 69:6; 2 Kings 8:13; Matthew 7:6; Matthew 15:26; Revelation 22:15, et al.), while the lion, with both Jew and Greek, was, as the king of beasts (Proverbs 30:30), the natural symbol of human sovereignty. A like proverb is found in Arabic.

The pessimist view of life, co-existing with the shrinking from death, finds a parallel in Euripides (Hippol. 190 197):

πᾶς δʼ ὀδυνηρὸς βίος ἀνθρώπων,

κοὐκ ἔστι πόνων ἀνάπαυσις

ἀλλʼ ὅ τι τοῦ ζῆν φίλτερον ἄλλο

σκότος ἀμπίσχων κρύπτει νεφέλαις•

δυσέρωτες δὴ φαινόμεθʼ ὄντες

τοῦ δʼ• ὅτι τοῦτο στίλβοι κατὰ γᾶν.

διʼ ἀπειροσύναν ἄλλου βιότου,

κοὐκ ἀπόδειξιν τῶν ὑπὸ γαίας.

"Yea, every life of man is full of grief,

Nor is there any respite from his toils:

But whatsoe'er is dearer than our life,

Darkness comes o'er it, covering all with clouds;

And yet of this we seem all madly fond,

For this at least is bright upon the earth,

Through utter nescience of a life elsewhere,

And the -no-proof" of all beneath the earth."