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Excusing Dido: an Analysis and Appeal to the Scholarship and Pedagogy of Women's Suicide in Antiquity Austin L

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Excusing Dido: an Analysis and Appeal to the Scholarship and Pedagogy of Women's Suicide in Antiquity Austin L Florida State University Libraries Honors Theses The Division of Undergraduate Studies 2015 Excusing Dido: An Analysis and Appeal to the Scholarship and Pedagogy of Women's Suicide in Antiquity Austin L. Ard Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] 1 THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Excusing Dido: An Analysis and Appeal to the Scholarship and Pedagogy of Women’s Suicide in Antiquity “An even worse pain is the female who, as soon as she sits down to dinner, praises Virgil and excuses Dido’s suicide.” – Juvenal, Satire 6.434-5 By AUSTIN-LEE ARD A Thesis submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in the Major Degree Awarded: Spring 2015 The members of the Defense Committee approve the thesis of Austin-Lee Ard defended on April 24, 2015. ____________________________________ Dr. Timothy Stover Thesis Director ____________________________________ Dr. Allen Romano Committee Member ____________________________________ Dr. Jessica Clark Committee Member _______________________________ Dr. David Levenson Outside Committee Member Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4 General Reception of Suicide ....................................................................................................... 10 How Many Suicides and Where ................................................................................................ 11 Death as Something Inherently Female .................................................................................... 12 Methods Explained ....................................................................................................................... 15 Weapons .................................................................................................................................... 18 Hanging ..................................................................................................................................... 19 Jumping ..................................................................................................................................... 20 Poison ........................................................................................................................................ 22 Fire ............................................................................................................................................ 22 Motives Explained ........................................................................................................................ 25 Dolor .......................................................................................................................................... 28 Desperata Salus ......................................................................................................................... 29 Pudor ......................................................................................................................................... 30 Furor .......................................................................................................................................... 31 Inpatientia .................................................................................................................................. 33 The Dido Tradition ........................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. In-depth Analysis of Virgil’s Dido ............................................................................................... 38 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 83 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 86 Introduction Every 13 minutes a person dies by their own hand. According to the American Association of Suicidology, for every one suicide, there are six survivors, people whose lives are affected by the death. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States; homicide is 16th. Considering the 815, 090 suicides from 1988 through 2012, the number of survivors is estimated to be around 4.9 million.1 With statistics like that, there are very few people whose lives or the lives of those around them have not been touched by the act. As educators in the classroom, we have to be educated ourselves in recognizing warning signs and factors that put students at a higher risk for suicide, especially since we don’t know if by teaching this material we might bring up strong and delicate feelings concerning the subject matter as it pertains to our students’ personal lives. Often our culture looks upon suicide as something sorrowful and in some instances shameful, but never to be valorized. Some churches condemn victims of suicide and assert that those who chose that path will never see heaven’s gates. Is suicide truly an inherent evil? Is it wrong in every single case? Is it a purely selfish act? In the first century CE, Pliny articulates the true complexity of the phenomenon: But the chief consolation for nature’s imperfection in the case of man is that not even for God all things are possible – for he cannot, even if he wishes, commit suicide, the supreme boon that nature has bestowed on man among all the penalties of life. (Natural History 2.27)2 1 McIntosh 2 Van Hooff, xii 3 Van Hooff, xiii 4 Josephus, Jewish War, 3.5.8 (Niese sections 369-70) ἀλλὰ µὴν ἡ αὐτοχειρία καὶ τῆς κοινῆς ἁπάντων ζῴων φύσεως ἀλλότριον καὶ πρὸς τὸν κτίσαντα θεὸν ἡµᾶς ἐστιν ἀσέβεια. τῶν µέν γε ζῴων2 Van οὐHooff,δέν ἐστιν xii ὃ θνήσκει µετὰ προνοίας ἢ δι᾽ αὐτοῦ: φύσεως γὰρ νόµος ἰσχυρὸς ἐν ἅπασιν τὸ ζῆν ἐθέλειν: 5Martial, Epigrammata, 1.78.5-8 Nec tamen obscuro pia polluit ora veneno/Aut torsit lenta tristia fata fame, /Sanctam Romana vitam sed morte peregit /Dimisitque animam nobiliore rogo. Pliny describes suicide as a consolation and a boon, a beneficial thing. While the more cynical critics in 21st century CE society might agree with this statement, ultimately it is at odds with the perspective of the modern mindset. Even over 2000 years ago, this matter was a key vexation of many philosophers and writers. Flavius Josephus fought reproaches that he himself did not share in the collective suicide at Massada. In an apologia pro vita he argues that suicide is a direct action against nature. 3 Suicide is alike repugnant to that nature which all creatures share, and an act of impiety toward God who created us. Among the animals there is not one that deliberately seeks death or kills itself; so firmly rooted in all is nature’s law – the will to live. (Jewish War 3.8.5)4 Even within a single author there could be a divide on the matter. Martial expresses dismay in one instance and respect in another. When Festus stabs himself, Martial remarks, “He did not however pollute his pious mouth with secret poison, or aggravate his sad fate by lingering famine, but ended his pure life by a death befitting a Roman, and freed his spirit in a nobler way.” (Martialis Epigrammata 1.78)5 But when Fannius commits suicide in an attempt to escape death at the hands of the enemy, we read, “Now I ask you: is it not sheer madness to expire in order not to die?” (Martialis Epigrammata 2.80)6 In the Greek world, suicide was almost an obligatory last act for philosophers and intellectuals it was so respected. Anaxagoras committed suicide at the age of 72, Aristotle at the age of 62, Diogenes at the age of 80, Epicurus 3 Van Hooff, xiii 4 Josephus, Jewish War, 3.5.8 (Niese sections 369-70) ἀλλὰ µὴν ἡ αὐτοχειρία καὶ τῆς κοινῆς ἁπάντων ζῴων φύσεως ἀλλότριον καὶ πρὸς τὸν κτίσαντα θεὸν ἡµᾶς ἐστιν ἀσέβεια. τῶν µέν γε ζῴων οὐδέν ἐστιν ὃ θνήσκει µετὰ προνοίας ἢ δι᾽ αὐτοῦ: φύσεως γὰρ νόµος ἰσχυρὸς ἐν ἅπασιν τὸ ζῆν ἐθέλειν: 5Martial, Epigrammata, 1.78.5-8 Nec tamen obscuro pia polluit ora veneno/Aut torsit lenta tristia fata fame, /Sanctam Romana vitam sed morte peregit /Dimisitque animam nobiliore rogo. 6 Martial, Epigrammata, 2.80.2 Hic, rogo, non furor est, ne moriare, mori? 71, and Pythagoras 82 just to name a few.7 One of the questions this paper will be asking is where a specific suicide, the one of Dido, falls on the ‘respect spectrum,’ why suicide is the only real option for Dido, and what factors led her to that conclusion. Where an individual suicide falls on the respect spectrum depends on many factors including but not limited to the motives and the methods. Without an honest suicide note, it is impossible to deduce the true reason why a person would choose to end his or her life. Due to the lack of such notes from antiquity, we are left with guesses based on the logic of contemporary thought. Our interpretations of the motivations, while seemingly true, may not satisfy every instance. I would challenge the reader to approach the loved ones of a suicide victim and to explain to their faces why he or she chose an early exit to life. I would then not wish to make that person’s acquaintance for whom that task was easy or who was sufficiently satisfied with their judgment. This issue of dealing with the callousness with which we approach the topic of suicide is especially relevant for those teaching or publishing research on the matter. We can’t afford to live under the assumption that one of those 4.9
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