On a personal level, hope for a future on this earth was tied to making a name, either through exploits of renown, building projects that would endure, or, most importantly, by siring the next generation. “The aim of every family was to perpetuate itself forever, it being important to the dead that their descendants not die out. Conversely, everyone had a paramount concern in leaving a son after him, in self-interest and as a duty towards the ancestors.”
