The passage of time takes on new significance with death being set squarely as an ending and not a gateway into an afterlife. Notably old age becomes a signpost of the end. Anacreon reflects, rather personally, on this in his Fragment 395. He comments on his gray temples, white hair, and old teeth, remarking, "of sweet life no longer does any large span remain." He is not mourning the passing of youth, but shaking in fear of the end:

"Therefore I weep and sob

often, in fear of Tartaros;

for Hades' inner chamber

is terrible, and full of grief

the road down. One thing is certain:

once down there, no one comes back up."

(Anacreon, Fr. 395)

For others though, the winter of our years are a kind of Hades unto themselves. In this light the mere loss of youth warrants tears. Mimnermus, mirroring Homer's earlier quote on generations, reflects,

"We, like the leaves which come forth in the flowery season

of spring, when they grow quickly under the radiance of the sun,

like them we enjoy the blossoms of youth for a short time only,"

(Mimnermus, Fr. 2)

Youth, with all its vibrance and flourishing takes precedence here. To Homer the generations of man passed when they perished. Mimnermus disagrees. He suggests that growing old is the end of meaningful life. He boasts of our early years as a beautiful blossoming of life filled with "clandestine love and cajoling gifts and bed." (Fr. 1). Old age in contrast:

"makes a man ugly and base alike,

Then dreadful anxieties constantly wear away at his mind,

and he takes no pleasure in gazing on the radiance of the sun,

but is instead hateful to boys, unhonored by women.

So grievous a thing have the gods made old age."

(Fr. 1)

Mimnermus sounds like a disgruntled teenager who has had a run in with a few ornery old men. Yet, his point is not as childish and shortsighted as it may seem. Mimnermus's grumbles become substantive in Fragment 2. There we are presented with a picture of the aged wallowing in "spirit-destroying" diseases, regret from not having children, and poverty. With such gloomy prospects the reader might even reluctantly agree with the conclusion that once "grievous and unsightly old age" arrives "then at once to be dead is better than life." (Fr. 5, Fr. 2). Mimnermus himself goes so far as to famously say: "May it happen that without disease or grievous troubles the fate of death might overtake me at sixty years of age." (Fr. 6). While Anacreon sees his gray hair and fears death, Mimnermus sees his youthful skin and fears age.

However, such desperate opinions are not universally held. Solon, the great Athenian reformer, stands out in opposition. He quipped about Mimnermus' death wish: "say it in this fashion, 'May the doom of death overtake me at eighty years of age.'" (Fr. 20). Being the only poet to write anything positive about old age, Solon remarks, "I grow old always learning many things." (Fr. 18). The pragmatic Solon is more politician than poet. While Mimnermus and Anacreon were given to romantic excess, writing about love and wine, Solon was sober minded and worldly. This has earned him critiques of his poetic sensibilities, but not his practical wisdom. Romance and the savoring of the fruits of life is a game for the young, but politics, as we in the United States know all too well, is played best by the old.

Still, even Solon admits that simply having enough food, romance, and youth is equivalent to great wealth. Then in the same fragment he laments that no one can ransom their way out of death, disease, nor "the approach of foul old age." (Fr. 24). He is pragmatic and somewhat optimistic, but not to a fault. Youth is still worth a fortune.