Mortals accept symbolic immortality when literal immortality is unattainable

Evidence

During a battle in the Iliad, Hector’s ally Sarpedon said to his cousin Glaukos, “could we…live forever deathless, without age, I would not ever go again into battle, nor would I send you there for honor’s sake!” But when it comes to something as pressing as immortality, people will take whatever they can get, so long as one’s name is not “writ in water.” — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 472

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the terror-management dichotomy of literal versus symbolic immortality developed in earlier chapters; also resonates with the Woody Allen quote in the preceding paragraph on preferring not dying. — connects to: Appearances are immortal while meaning is mortal and dispensable — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 542; Authentic existence requires accepting that we will die — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 292

Related

• Humans pursue symbolic immortality through works, namesakes, and progeny (similarity 0.80)
• Appearances are immortal while meaning is mortal and dispensable (similarity 0.80)
• Sartrean heroes long for irreversible acts that fix their identity forever (similarity 0.79)
• Another group’s immortality beliefs threaten one’s own death-transcendence claims (similarity 0.78)