Suicide in antiquity

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Suicide in antiquity was common across many cultures and for many reasons. People debated its meaning and morality early on, and some saw it as a way to redeem oneself, protect family honor, or escape suffering.

In Rome, the story of Lucretia shows how suicide could be tied to shame and personal or communal honor. After being harmed, she killed herself and said she was not guilty of the sin she feared, but she could not escape the consequences. This reflected a view that death could be a respectable way to deal with dishonor.

Old age and serious illness also pushed some to end their lives. Thinkers in the modern era, like Emile Durkheim, later used four categories to describe why people kill themselves: egoistic (feeling detached from society); altruistic (sacrificing for the group); anomic (driven by out-of-control desires); and fatalistic (oppressed by too much regulation). These categories can still be used to understand ancient cases, such as those tied to faith, duty, or social pressures.

In ancient India, altruistic suicide took two forms. Jauhar was when women killed themselves after a battle defeat to avoid murder, rape, or enslavement. Sati was the self-immolation of a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre, sometimes for family or economic reasons or because of social expectations.

Greek and Roman thinkers debated suicide from many angles. The Stoics generally opposed suicide, except when a god signaled it was time to depart. Zeno, for example, said a divine sign could indicate the right moment to die. But there were other views too.

- Socrates saw suicide as unacceptable for a person who belongs to the gods’ plan, and he argued that he would not kill himself even when facing execution, partly because of a belief in divine order. Plato echoed this idea in part, suggesting that killing oneself could be a crime against the state or the gods, though some openings existed in his dialogue where certain circumstances might allow it.
- Aristotle allowed suicide only in limited cases and warned that giving in to pain or poverty could be cowardly unless the state ordered it.

Many Greeks viewed self-chosen death as heroic in some stories, while others condemned it as a violation of order or duty.

In the Christian tradition, the Bible contains several accounts that mention suicide, including Samson’s death in the Old Testament and the stories of Saul, Absalom’s adviser Ahithophel, Zimri, and Judas Iscariot. The motives and moral lessons vary, and later Christian thinkers debated how to interpret these acts. Augustine, an influential early Christian teacher, argued that there is no rightful reason to end one’s life, and Judas’s action was seen as a grave betrayal rather than a legitimate choice.

Overall, people in antiquity discussed suicide in many ways: as an act of personal courage, a response to social strictures or fear, a result of illness or old age, or a choice shaped by religious and political beliefs. The debates about whether suicide is understandable or condemnable continued to shape moral thinking long after antiquity.