Suicide in Ancient Egypt

7/29/2019 Suicide in Ancient Egypt

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Suicide in ancient Egypt

The evidence

There is no direct

archaeological evidence

for suicide in ancient

Egypt nor for any

discriminatory treatment

of people who died at

their own hand;

archaeologists may more

cautiously speak of there

beingfew physical clues

in tombs to treatment o

suicide as

exceptional.[1]

One will

therefore have to rely on

the almost as rare written

records as to incidence

and methods of suicide,

and attitudes towards it.

Historical records

The three millennia long
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history of ancient Egypt

yields records of just a

handful of suicides. In the

aftermath of an

assassination attempt

against Ramses III a

number of the

conspirators, among them

Queen Tiye's son, Prince

Pentawer, were

condemned to death, but,

as a special mark of

leniency, were given the

option to commit suicide.

Persons brought in

because of their crimes

and because of their

collusion with

Pebekkamen, Peyes, and

Pentewere. They were

laced before the nobles

of the court o

examination in order to

examine them; they found

them guilty; they left


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them in their own hands

in the court o

examination; they took

their own lives; and no

unishment was executed

upon them.

The Judicial Turin

Papyrus

Pebes on the other hand

was not condemned to

death for carousing with

women of

the harem accused of

conspiring against the

king. His punishment was

to have his nose and ears

cut off, but he killed

himself, probably unable

to bear his shame:

This great criminal,

Pebes, formerly butler.

This punishment was

executed upon him; he

was left (alone); he took

his own life.
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The Judicial Turin

Papyrus

When with their fall from

power the pride of the

mighty was hurt, they

may have preferred to put

an end to their life and

not suffer further

ignominy. Queen

Cleopatra VII, last of the

Hellenist Ptolemies,

committed suicide in

order not to be shamed in

Octavian's public triumph

in Rome, after she had

lost her bid to keep Egypt

independent.

More is known about

suicide in Graeco-Roman

times than in the

preceding three millennia

of Egyptian history, buteven those records are

scarce. Among them is an

official complaint by the
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relatives of a man driven

to suicide by persecution:

To Apollonios, strategos

of the Arsinoite nome,

rom Pakebkis, son o

Horos, and Kollouthos,

son of P[- - -];[- - -] o

the same village [- - -]

them of false accusations

and assaults in regard to

which each of those who

have suffered wrong has

made his complaint. Even

then the same accused

with his customary

daring attacked another

of the residents of the

same village, Kronion,

son of Petesouchos, who

is also called Chales,

wishing to ruin him by

enalties, so that,

because of his needy

condition, Kronion laid

hands on himself and


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erished. Wherefore,

acting not unwisely,

Petesis, the brother o

Kronion, and Kronion's

own wife, Tephereus,

daughter of Sigeris, laid

the complaint at that time

in accordance with what

they declared to Tiberius

Claudius Chrysermos, the

ormer strategos, about

these occurrences in the

etition. Since, then, the

matter has become

evident from the . . . o

the accused Orses [- - -]

we shall appear as

laintiffs wherever our

lord Gnaeus Vergilius

Capito shall hold the

assizes of the nome to the

end that through his

udgment he (i.e. the

accused) may meet with

the punishment he


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deserves. Farewell.[2]

Of another suicide which

occurred in 173 CE just

the plain facts about how

he died are known, as

the demosios iatros, the

public physician,

Dionysos reported to the

strategos:

Today I was ordered by

tour servant Herakleides

to inspect the dead,

hanged body of Hierax

and to inform you about

the conclusion I would

come to with respect to it.

Therefore I inspected the

body in the personal

resence of the servant in

the home of Epagathos,

son of ...ymeros, son o

Sarapion, in the Broad

Street and I found it

hanged with a noose.

Thus I report.[3]
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Threats of killing oneself

as calls for help were also

made in antiquity. A

woman called Isidora,

worried about the ill

health of her child, wrote

to her husband Hermias:

Do anything, postpone

everything, and come.

referably tomorrow. The

baby is ill. It has become

thin. It is already two

hundred days [since you

went away(?)]. I fear it

will die in your absence.

Know for sure: if it dies

in your absence, be

repared that you do not

ind me hanged.[4]

Literary testimony

Ancient literature, even in

the form of histories,

should not be mistaken

for historical records. It


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can throw light on

attitudes held, it may

repeat historical

memories transmitted by

folk tales or as part of

scribal traditions, but

unless there are

independent

archaeological sources

confirming it, anything

quoted as a fact in such

writings should be taken

with a grain of salt.

Diodorus Siculus

retells the lives of various

ancient kings, among

them one whom he calls

Sesosis, who killed

himself when he became

blind after a long reign:

nd after a reign o

thirty-three years he

deliberately took his own

life, his eyesight having

ailed him; and this act


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won for him the

admiration not only o

the priests of Egypt but o

the other inhabitants as

well, for it was thought

that he had caused the

end of his life to comport

with the loftiness of spirit

shown in his

achievements.

Diodorus

Siculus,Library o

History[5]

Serving a king could lead

even the wise into moral

quandaries, from which

the only exit may have

been death. Josephus

Flavius recounts that

Manetho told a story

about a king by the name

of Amenophis whowanted to see the gods.

The advice of his

counsellor Amenophis,
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son of Paapis, was to

cleanse the country of all

lepers. The king followed

this advice, isolated

80,000 infected persons

in the stone quarries east

of the Nile, where they

had to break stone.

mong them, Manetho

adds, there were some o

the learned priests, who

had been attacked by

leprosy. Then this wise

seer Amenophis was

illed with dread of divine

wrath against himself and

the king if the outrage

done to these persons

should be discovered;

and he added a

rediction that certain

allies would join the

olluted people and

would take possession o

Egypt for 13 years. Not


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venturing to make this

rophecy himself to the

king, he left a full

account of it in writing,

and then took his own

life.

From Josephus, Contra

pionem[6]

In the Tale of Princess

huraNaneferkaptah,

preoccupied with his

quest to retrieve the Book

of Thoth, kills himself

after allowing his wife

Princess Ahura and their

son Merab to drown:

... he said to his heart,

"Shall I not better turn

back again to Koptos,

that I may lie by them?

For if not, when I go

down to Memphis, and

the king asks after his

children, what shall I say

to him? Can I tell him, 'I
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have taken your children

to the Thebaid and killed

them, while I remained

alive, and I have come to

Memphis still alive?' "

Then he made them bring

him a linen cloth o

striped byssus; he made a

band, and bound the book

irmly, and tied it upon

him. Naneferkaptah then

went out of the awning o

the royal boat and fell

into the river. He cried

on Ra; and all those who

were on the bank made

an outcry, saying, "Great

woe! Sad woe! Is he lost,

that good scribe and able

man that has no equal?"

Tale of Princess Ahura[7]

In these tales there is nocondemnation of the act

of suicide as morally

wrong. TheDebate


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between a man tired o

life and his soul is more

critical of it.

Suicide note or

existentialist

treatise: The Debate

between a man tired o

life and his soul?

TheDebate between a

man tired of life and his

soul, the only known

copy of which dates from

the twelfth dynasty, was

composed during a period

when the certainties

about life and its rewards

in an eternal afterlife as

they had come to be

conceived from the end

of the Old Kingdom on,

had given way to

hedonism, to looking for

satisfaction in the here

and nowin the words of
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a Harper's song from the

tomb of King

Antef:Revel in pleasure

while your life endures.

The text is incomplete

and difficult to

understand.[8]

It describes

a man deeply unhappy

with life. He disputes

with his ba who refuses

to acknowledge his

suffering and threatens to

leave him, a frightening

prospect as this would

prevent his resurrection

and a blissful existence in

the beyond. The man

exposes his anxiety and

in the end his ba agrees

to remain with him. He

displays a mental state

characteristic of asuicide: low self-esteem,

self hatred, social

isolation, hope of release
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from suffering by death

and a better life in the

beyond; and it has been

suggested that this might

have been a suicide

note.[9]

Attitudes towards

suicide

Sources about ancient

Egyptian attitudes

towards suicide are few

and ambiguous, which

leads some to call

them varied,[10] similar to

those in ancient Greece

and Rome, changing over

time, from place to

place,[11]

and from person

to person. Some claim

that suicide was seen as a

humane way to escape

intolerable hardship and

depression,[12] while there

are those who think that it
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was forbidden.[13]

The claim has been

made that suicides cut

themselves off from the

gods.[14]

If that had been

so, the peasant in the Tale

of the Eloquent

Peasantwho threatened

to take his complaint

before Anubis, i.e. to

commit suicide and then

askOsiris for justice at

hisJudgment of the

Dead, which might well

have repercussions for a

magistrate refusing to

mete out justice,[15] would

hardly have done so, nor

would the magistrate

have taken the threat

seriously.

The fact that somecondemned conspirators

against Ramses III were

given the option of
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killing themselves, when

others, apparently less

favoured, suffered a

terrible death probably

by impalement which is

thought to have prevented

them from entering

eternal life, may be

considered evidence that

suicides were still able to

enjoy afterlife.[16]

More is known about

the attitudes of the

Hellenists, who came to

dominate Egyptian life

from the third century

BCE onwards. Among

the Greeks there was no

religious law against

suicide, though Aristotle

and Epicurus, in contrastto the Stoics, the Cynics

and the Platonists,

opposed it. But only
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Pythagoreanism held it to

be morally wrong.[17]

The philosopher

Hegesias, who lived in

the third century BCE

seems to have richly

deserved his nickname

Peisithanatos which

means 'Death Persuader.'

He propounded that

human beings were

driven by pleasure and

the avoidance of pain,

and he rejected any

inherent value of such

commonly acknowledged

virtues as friendship,

kindness and

gratitude.[18]

By dying

one did not lose anything

of worth, but rather

gained being free fromevil.[19] According to

Cicero and others

Ptolemy Lagi forbade his
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lectures at Alexandria

after many of his listeners

had committed

suicide.[20]

As Christianity took

hold in Egypt, suicide

became a crime.

Augustine of

Hippo [21] based this view

on the sixth

commandment, "Thou

shalt not kill", which

included oneself.[22]

Incidence and methods

Little is known about the

incidence of suicide

among the upper classes

and practically nothing

about it among the

voiceless masses, but it is

thought to have been

rare.[28]

As to how people

killed themselves, tales

mention a variety of
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methods. Herodotus

retold a story he had

heard about the Ethiopian

queen Nitocris in

hisHistory:

They said that she

(Nitocris) succeeded her

brother; he had been king

of Egypt, and was put to

death by his subjects,

who then placed her upon

the throne. Bent on

avenging his death, she

devised a cunning scheme

by which she destroyed a

vast number o

Egyptians. She

constructed a spacious

underground chamber,

and, on pretence o

inaugurating it, contrived

the following:- Inviting to

a banquet those of the

Egyptians whom she

knew to have had the


22/32

chief share in the murder

of her brother, she

suddenly, as they were

easting, let the river in

upon them by means of a

secret duct of large size.

This and this only did

they tell me of her, except

that, when she had done

as I have said, she threw

herself into an apartment

ull of ashes, that she

might escape the

vengeance whereto she

would otherwise have

been exposed.

Herodotus on Nitocris[23]

Fire is possibly the least

prepossessing way of

killing oneself, though

some of the other

methods mentioned, likethrowing oneself before

crocodiles or drowning

oneself,[28] may be
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scarcely more appealing.

Poison might provide a

way out, as was proven

by Queen Cleopatra, the

popular story being that

she let an asp bite her.[24]

As interesting and

exotic these methods may

have been, research of

records of suicide in the

ancient world concluded

that hanging was

apparently the manner

most frequently

chosen.[25]

Reasons for suicide

Under the first dynasty

high officials were

apparently sacrificed

upon their king's death, at

first by the hundreds.

Under the last kings of

the dynasty the number

of sacrifices was down to
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about a tenth and later the

custom disappeared

completely.[26] It has been

suggested that these royal

servants were forced into

self-immolation,[27] in

order to serve the king in

the hereafter. Similarly,

the conspirators against

Ramses III committed

suicide because they did

not have much of a

choice, the alternative

being a good deal worse.

Then as now

depression was probably

the most important cause

for suicide. The

composer of

theDebate shows many

of its signs in his work,

and some followers ofHegesias must have felt

the absence of purpose in

their existence deeply to
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end their lives. Whether

some people despaired of

the state of Egyptian

society after the collapse

of the Old Kingdom to

such an extent, that they

killed themselves as some

suggest,[29]

cannot be

verified.

Bibliography:

Albert I. Baumgarten,

Jan Assmann,

Gedaliahu A. G.Stroumsa (eds.), Self,

soul, and body in

religious experience,

Brill, 1998

Paul Carrick,Medical

Ethics in the AncientWorld, Georgetown

University Press, 2001

John R. Catan,A
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History of Ancient

Philosophy: The

systems of the

Hellenistic Age, SUNY

Press, 1985

Frederick Charles

Copleston,A history o

hilosophy, Continuum

International

Publishing Group,

2003

Diodorus Siculus, The

Library of History,

vol.1, Loeb Classical

Library edition, 1933

Eleanor Goltz

Huzar,Mark Antony, a

biography, U of

Minnesota Press, 1978

Pamela Rae Heath, Jon

Klimo, Suicide: what

really happens in theafterlife?, North

Atlantic Books, 2006

Herodotus,Euterpe,


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translated by George

Rawlinson, New York

1885

Anton J. L. van

Hooff, From

autothanasia to

suicide: self-killing in

classical antiquity,

Routledge, 1990

Miriam

Lichtheim,Ancient

Egyptian Literature,

University of

California Press 1973,

vol.1

Erich H.

Loewy, Textbook o

medical ethics,

Springer, 1989

Donald

McCormick, The

unseen killer; a studyof suicide: its history,

causes and cures,

Muller, 1964


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Alexander

Murray, Suicide in the

Middle Ages: The

curse on self-murder,

Oxford University

Press, 2000

Margaret Oldroyd

Hyde, Elizabeth Held

Forsyth, Suicide: The

Hidden Epidemic,

CompCare, 1989

William Matthew

Flinders

Petrie,Religious life in

ancient Egypt,

Constable, 1924

H. D. Rankin, Sophists,

Socratics, and Cynics,

Taylor & Francis, 1983

Helaine Selin

(ed.),Encyclopaedia o

the history of science,technology, and

medicine in non-

western cultures,


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Springer, 1997

John H. Taylor,Death

and the afterlife in

ancient Egypt, British

Museum Press, 2001,

p.41

Upendra Thakur, The

history of suicide in

India: an Introduction,

Munshi Ram Manohar

Lal, 1963

Eva March Tappan,

ed., The World's Story:

History of the World

in Story, Song and Art,

Vol. III: Egypt, Africa,

and Arabia, Houghton

Mifflin Boston, 1914

Chris Thomas, "First

suicide note?"

inBritish Medical

Journal, July 1980,pp.284f.

John Albert

Wilson, The culture o


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ancient Egypt, Oriental

Institute essay,

Chicago University,

University of Chicago

Press, 1956

Footnotes:

[1] Murray 2000, p.585

[2] P.Mich.:5:231, ca.

47-48 CE, APIS

record:

michigan.apis.2786

[3] van Hooff 1990,

p.156

[4] van Hooff 1990,

p.155

[5] Diodorus, 1.58.3

[6] inManetho, with

an English translation

by W. G. Waddell,

Harvard University

Press 1964, p.125[7] Petrie in Tappan

1914, pp.55

[8] Lichtheim vol.1


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1973, p.163

[9] Thomas 1980,

pp.284f.

[10] Oldroyde & Held

1989, p.36

[11] Oldroyde & Held

1989, p.39

[12] McCormick 1964,

p.33

[13] Selin 1997, p.665

[14] Loewy 1989,

p.145

[15] Baumgarten et

al. 1998, p.389

[16] Taylor 2001, p.41

[17] Carrick 2001, p.94

[18] Rankin 1983,

pp.202ff.

[19] Catan 1985,

Volume 3, pp. 40ff.

[20] Copleston 2003,

Volume 1, pp. 122f.[21] also called St

Augustine, 354-430,

Bishop of Hippo (in


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today's Algeria), one of

the most influential

church fathers.

[22] Heath & Klimo

2006 p.33

[23] Herodotus, 2.100

[24] Goltz 1978, p.227

[25] van Hooff 1990,

p.72

[26] Petrie 1924, p.35

[27] Thakur 1963,

p.127

[28] Murray 2000,

p.585

[29] Wilson 1956, p.11

Documents

Suicide in Ancient Egypt