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The Suicide of Lucretia Though I Absolve Myself of Wrongdoing, I Do Not Exempt Myself from Punishment

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The Suicide of Lucretia Though I Absolve Myself of Wrongdoing, I Do Not Exempt Myself from Punishment ART AND IMAGES IN PSYCHIATRY SECTION EDITOR: JAMES C. HARRIS, MD The Suicide of Lucretia Though I absolve myself of wrongdoing, I do not exempt myself from punishment. Nor henceforth shall any unchaste woman continue to live by citing the precedent of Lucretia. Livy, History of Rome1(p81) Poor hand, why quiver’st thou at this decree?/Honor thyself to rid me of this shame;/For if I die, my honor lives in thee;/But if I live, thou livest in my defame. Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece2(p28) HE VIRTUOUS LUCRETIA WAS RAPED BY SEXTUS tians have no authority to commit suicide under any cir- Tarquinius, the son of the tyrannical king of cumstances. He condemned Lucretia’s suicide, recasting Rome, in the 6th century BC.3 Afterwards, al- it as response to her shame and not to the high value she though she was the victim, Lucretia commit- placed on chastity. Echoing Lucretia’s father and hus- Tted suicide. Fearing posthumous disgrace when Tar- band, and citing 300 nuns who were raped during the sack quin threatened to kill both her and a male slave and make of Rome and who did not commit suicide, he wrote that it appear that she had been caught in adultery with the there is no unchastity when a woman is ravished against slave, she yielded her body to him but not her mind. Her her will. Projecting a subjective Christian sense of guilt suicide was motivated by shame, not guilt; she felt anx- on Lucretia, he states that if she were indeed innocent, she ious about how others might interpret her behavior if she should not have taken her own life. He simply wrote: “If lived and was concerned that unchaste women would she was pure why was she slain?”4(p31) For Augustine, the claim blackmail as an excuse for their voluntary sexual sin of suicide could not atone for the shame of rape, real encounters (epigraph). Because others could not know or imagined posthumously. Thus, he justified the nuns’ her conscience, she decided that suicide would testify to decision, noting that the nuns did not avenge on them- her innocent state of mind. Female chastity was so re- selves the guilt of others and add crimes of their own to vered by Lucretia that she took her life rather than vio- ones they did not share. In the sight of God, they were pure late this ideal. According to the traditions of the time, and should ignore human suspicion. she died an honorable, heroic death. For Augustine, suicide was a sin because it preempted Before killing herself, she pledged her husband, fa- divine power over life and demonstrated lack of gratitude ther, and male relative Lucius Junius Brutus to an oath for divine grace. Five church councils confirmed August- of revenge against Tarquin. Outraged by her death and ine’s views and codified moral penalties for suicide. At the other excesses by the king and his family, Brutus pulled Council of Arles (452), it was deemed a mortal sin; at the the knife from her body; held it aloft; and summoned all Council of Orleans (533), Christian burial was denied to present to put aside their grief, convert it into anger, and criminals who died by suicide; at the Council of Brega (563), overthrow the monarchy. They carried Lucretia’s body Christian burial rites were denied to all suicides; at the Coun- out of the house to the Roman forum and placed it there, cil of Antisidorum (590), offerings on behalf of the de- attracting indignant crowds who were stunned by the ceased were rejected (denying them divine grace); and at prince’s violent lust and her pitiful death. Brutus called the Council of Toledo (693), suicide attempters were to on the gods who avenge parents. Then, wrote Roman his- be excommunicated. Later, not only was sanctified burial torian Livy,1 Brutus elicited in those assembled, “recol- denied, but also the corpse was desecrated.5 lections of more savage deeds, [and produced] an im- Despite Augustine’s views, in his Divine Comedy, Dante mediate feeling of outrage that is by no means easy for Alighieri places Lucretia and Brutus in Limbo among the historians to relate, he inflamed the people, driving them nobles of Rome and virtuous pagans who have not sinned to revoke the king’s power”1(p83) and ordered the exile of and are not punished; among the others placed here are the king and his wife and children. That accomplished, Socrates and Seneca, both of whom committed suicide. 2 consuls were appointed, Brutus and Collatinus (Lu- Lucretia is not placed in the lower realms with the self- cretia’s husband), who inaugurated the First Roman Re- murderers who are constantly tormented by harpies.6 The public. Thus, the rape of Lucretia initiated the founding legend of Lucretia appears in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Legend of the republic. Brutus’ actions ensured that she did not of Good Women (ca 1386). For Chaucer, Lucretia is con- die in vain. Throughout antiquity, the legendary Lucre- stant in heart and faithful in the love of her husband. Bru- tia was venerated because she sacrificed herself for the tus swears on her chaste blood, and in Roman history ideal of purity and was a symbol of patriotism. she is revered as a saint. By the Renaissance there are al- Nearly a millennium later, in the Christian era that fol- lusions to her heroic suicide as martyrdom; her chastity lowed, Augustine4(pp30,31) interpreted her suicide differ- and sense of shame seem to have won out over self- ently. In his City of God Against the Pagans begun in AD murder and accusations of vanity. 413 (written to defend the Church of Rome against the For Lucretia, revenge and retaliation was carried out charge that Christians had brought about the sack of Rome by men in her family, not by the abused woman herself. by the Visigoths 3 years earlier), he insisted that Chris- LucretiaisavengedbyBrutus.However,otherancientwom- (REPRINTED) ARCH GEN PSYCHIATRY/ VOL 65 (NO. 4), APR 2008 WWW.ARCHGENPSYCHIATRY.COM 374 ©2008 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/26/2021 ReformedChurchfor“livinginsinlikeawhore”withhim.8(p10) She conceded that their child, born out of wedlock, should be baptized. Rembrandt had not married Hendrickje because he wanted to avoid forfeiture of the inheritance from his wife, Saskia van Uylenburg, who died of tuberculosis in 1642; a second marriage also would have affected the inheritance of his son, Titus. There is no eroticism or hysteria in these paintings of Lu- cretiabyRembrandtasinthosebyothercontemporarypaint- ers.9 Inthefirstpainting(1664)(thumbnail),Lucretiaisalone: her husband, father, and family are not present. Rembrandt stripped away all but one introspective moment and con- centrated on the expression on Lucretia’s face. Her head is slightly tilted and her eyes are red from crying. Her left ear- ring sways, suggesting movement as she guides the dagger toward her heart. Her partly opened mouth may indicate that she has just expressed her resolve to die (epigraph). Her che- mise falls into a deep V and the laces are unloosened on her bodice,thesleeveofherrightforearmappearstobeundone— consistent with her despondent state of mind or possibly the indignity she has experienced.8 In the 1666 painting, Rembrandt used a different model for Lucretia, not Hendrickje, although he may have still been grieving her death. In this later Lucretia, she has now stabbed herself. She fills the frame, yet an aura of pri- Figure. Lucretia, 1666, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. vacy is maintained by her averted gaze and the slight in- clination of her head. She leans against the bed and holds en took justice into their own hands. In Giovanni Boccac- the rope cord for support; tears shine on her lower eye- cio’s On Famous Women, he recounts the lives of 106 fa- lids, and blood from her wound stains her white che- mous women. Among them is Chiomara, the wife of a Ga- mise. Her face conveys utter despair. Her white chemise latianchieftain.Sheandseveralofhersubjectswerecaptured draws attention to her face and sets it off from the knife by the Romans in the Galatian war (189 BCE) and placed wound. The lime green of the garment falling off her under the guard of a Roman centurion, who assaulted and shoulders creates a transition from the golds of her dress raped her despite her utmost resistance. Later the centu- and the pale, deathlike pallor of her face.8 The blood on rion ransomed her back to the Galatians. While he was her chemise was overpainted and not revealed until the occupied at the ransom site counting the gold from his ran- painting was restored in 1953. For Rembrandt, these 2 som, she signaled her servants, speaking in her own lan- Lucretia paintings may represent a eulogy to Hen- guage, to cut off his head. Wrapping the head in her gar- drickje, on whom he relied for so many years.8 ment, she delivered it to her husband, throwing it at his Honor suicide remains an issue in modern times when feet, saying that only one living man may be intimate with a woman is ordered or pressured to kill herself because her. She acknowledged no guilt; her body was defiled but of perceived dishonor to her family. In some parts of the her mind remained chaste. Boccaccio states that Chiomara world, the mere perception that a woman has behaved and Lucretia, about whom he also wrote, are of the same in a way that dishonors her family continues to be suf- breed and preserve their womanly honor.
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