From Autothanasia to Suicide: Self-Killing in Classical Antiquity

333 Pages·1990·3.19 MB·English

by  Anton van Hooff

FROM AUTOTHANASIA
TO SUICIDE

FROM
AUTOTHANASIA
TO SUICIDE
Self-killing in Classical Antiquity

Anton J.L.van Hooff
First published 1990
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
a division of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the
Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library,
2002.
© 1990 Anton J.L.van Hooff
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Van Hooff, Anton J.L.
From autothanasia to suicide: self-killing in classical
antiquity.
1. classical world. Suicide
I. Title
362.2
ISBN 0-203-03293-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-22550-3 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-04055-8 (Print Edition)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Van Hooff, Anton J.L.
From autothanasia to suicide: self-killing in classical antiquity
Anton J.L. van Hooff.
00 p. cm.
Translation from Dutch.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-415-04055-8
1. Suicide—Greece—History. 2. Suicide—Rome—History.
I. Title.
HV6543.H66 1990
362.28’0938–dc20 89–70139
CIP
Andreae, Claudiae, Mirjam,
causis vivendi

CONTENTS

List of illustrations ix
List of figures x
Prologue xi
Less than an animal, mightier than a god xii
Part I Phenomena of Self-Killing 1
1. CASUS MORIENDI 3
A. What’s in a case? 5
B. What’s in a number? 8
C. The peaks of Republican and Mythical suicide 10
D. Barbarians, Greeks, Romans 14
E. The lower classes show the way out 16
F. Virtus of women 21
G. Virgins as a risk-group 22
H. Ancient Werthers? 26
I. An old crone 29
J. Failing powers and resolution among old men 33
2. MODI MORIENDI 40
A. Starvation: inedia 41
B. Romana morte: weapons 47
C. Seeking the hand of another: provocation 54
D. Fire as an exotic means 57
E. Medicine by way of poison 59
F. By all manners of death: varia et exotica 62
G. The rope of ghastly death 64
H. Whereas the bridge is available, jumping 73
I. The meaning of the method in the
ars moriendi 77
vii
CONTENTS
3. CAUSAE MORIENDI 79
A. Despair: desperata salus 85
B. Forced into a free death: necessitas 94
C. A proof of madness: furor 96
D. Grief: dolor 99
E. The curse of the suicide: exsecratio 106
F. No longer being who you used to be: pudor 107
G. Guilt: mala conscientia 120
H. Old and full of years: taedium vitae 122
I. Unbearable suffering: inpatientia 123
J. Devotio and fides 126
K. Showing off: iactatio 129
L. The ancient paradigm of self-killing 130
Part II Experience of self-killing 133
4. SUICIDE IN WORDS AND TEXTS 135
A. Suicidium, a non-word 136
B. Rhetorical, dramatic and humorous exploitation 141
C. Direct evidence for self-killing on stones and paper 150
5. EXPERTS, LAW-GIVERS AND ARTISTS 157
A. Experts: doctors, astrologers and an interpreter of dreams 157
B. A last tribute to a suicide? 160
C. Suicidium as an institution and a confession 166
D. The image of self-killing 173
Part III Reflections on self-killing 179
6. PHILOSOPHERS AND THEOLOGIANS 181
A. Self-killing as a private act 183
B. Self-killing in the polis-community 185
C. Self-killing and the cosmopolis 188
Appendix A: 960 cases of self-killing 198
Appendix B: Profile of ancient self-killing 233
Appendix C: Suicidal vocabulary of Greek and Latin 243
Notes 251
Bibliography 283
Index 289
viii
ILLUSTRATIONS
Between pages 178 and 179.
1 A Gaul kills himself having slayed his wife first.
2 The Dacian king Decebalus stabs himself when the victorious
Romans approach his hiding place, segment of Trajan’s column.
3 Decebalus on an earthenware cup from Gaul.
4 Thisbe throws herself on the sword with which Pyramus has
stabbed himself shortly before; fresco in the house of Octavius
Quartio in Pompeii.
5 Dido stabs herself on top of the pyre; from the Virgilius
Vaticanus.
6 Detail of Dido’s suicide in the Virgilius Vaticanus.
7 Croesus on the pyre.
8 Ajax fixes his sword in preparation for his suicide.
9 Ajax on his sword.
10 Lucretia as a Christian heroine of chastity.
11 Seneca dying in a bath; painting by P.P.Rubens.
12 Despair depicted as a hanged individual; fresco by Giotto in
the Arena Chapel in Padua.
13 The impatient man throws himself on his sword; detail of
the illustration for the rubric Patientia in the Orbis Sensualium
Pictus by Comenius.
ix