Talk:Suicide in antiquity

This article really needs work

"Today the reasons for suicide are many, and the ways to achieve it are broad. However, anciently, there was one main reason for killing yourself. It was not common practice to end your life, because once you died, there was no returning".. Do I really have to explain why that phrasing simply denies logic? Suicide has always been a cultural issue (for lack of a better phrase), but I can guarantee you that the reasons for committing suicide where just as varied as today. Saying "anciently, there was one main reason for killing yourself". Illogical unsupported claim and really not that appropriate for any project claiming to be a formal Encyclopedia.--Metalhead94 ^{T C} 01:59, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

what about cleopatra and the romans falling on their swords? What about the Japanese hara-kiri? What about the assasins?

This article is pretty lopsided!86.70.22.233 (talk) 15:59, 29 July 2013 (UTC)brryan

This article is a disaster. It reads like a poorly written high school essay, it only touches on ancient Greece and the Middle East. As pointed out above, there is a wealth of other material that needs covering. The entire thing needs a re-write. I don't feel qualified to do this, but I hope someone else does. Evan.morien (talk) 04:06, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

Agreed, this article needs a lot of help, it's way too narrow.. I'm not qualified to rewrite it either, but I'm making a few changes to the biblical section

• Remove the story of Abimelech - if it's not a suicide, why is it in this article?
• Remove the first usage of the repeated Augustine quote about Judas - redundant.
• also take out the first mention of Judas and combine it with the second, and put in a specific bible quote.
• if Zimri is fifth, who was fourth? Just change it to fourth. Unless you're counting Saul and his armor bearer as two, but then Absalom would be fourth, and there would be six total suicides instead of five "accounts."

1. Samson
2. Saul and his armor bearer
3. Absalom
4. Zimri
5. Judas

Worth noting: I looked it up, and it doesn't appear the bible mentioning a tree specifically anywhere, and the way it's described in Acts makes it sound like he jumped off a cliff.

So, that's a little something anyway...stephan.com (talk) 09:25, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

It's a shame to Wikipedia that a subject so interesting is represented by this article, which is largely based by a medieval (today Catholic) moral attitude towards suicide, which is neither rational nor liberal nor moral for anyone involved, nor historical, and this is purely a history topic. An encyclopedia, like a super dictionary with complex ideas, describes, it does not, or in this case, should not, prescribe. This article is unintellectual.

Therefore, dottore e dottoresse, I propose that this article is DELETED! (With the intent rewriting it almost from scratch.)

I would do it, but the process is very, very long and I don't have the time. My advice is to have the new article already outlined with references before nominating this page to be deleted. That's probably how it works. PLEASE DO IT!!

Mcboozerilla (talk) 02:35, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Extraneous info

Is the discussion on Durkheim's analysis of suicide actually necessary to this page? Maybe a tiny portion of it is useful, but it appears mostly extraneous to the discussion of suicide in antiquity specifically. I'm happy to delete it but not sure if I'm wrong in this case.

Additionally, the reasons for suicide section needs a serious revamp. And not sure the long discussion of Greek philosophy is relevant as philosophy doesn't necessarily reflect actual practice. I think it should be pared down and the focus on suicide in practice should be stronger. Please let me know though.

Thanks! Caligulady (talk) Caligulady (talk) 02:55, 16 September 2022 (UTC)

Still needs tons of work

Antiquity doesn't really mean only Western antiquity and, even if it did, Rome is nearly missing in its entirety. To take one noted example, Varus and many of his officers committed ritual suicide in the middle of the ambush at Teutoburg Forest once they realized what was happening. Cato... Seneca... — LlywelynII 18:51, 22 October 2022 (UTC)