| Top |
Ancient Egyptc 3100 to c 1090 BC [*]. |
|
Home
|
In ancient Egypt the dead were placed on an equal footing with the living -- in fact, were thought to have the same feelings and needs. This attitude is most easily seen in Egyptian burial practices, where the body was preserved and any material items which might be needed by the deceased in the land of the dead were buried along with him. Dying was merely a passage to another existence, and as such, the active procurement of one's death was looked upon as just another way of traveling to the next life.
To be sure, there were reasons why a person might not wish to commit suicide. The would-be suicide had a moral responsibility to society to stay alive; to do his job, to procreate, to consume. But social responsibility may be easily forgotten in a time of great physical or emotional pain, and so a stricture was placed upon the suicide: the possibility that proper funeral rites and tomb upkeep might be withheld if the suicide's reasons were thought to be unsound. Without the proper rites, the deceased would be unable to make his way to the next world; without the provision of food and wine and household goods, the deceased was doomed to an eternity of starvation and poverty. This was not meant as a punishment, but as a strong inducement to think carefully before making an irreversible decision which it was every citizen's right to make. Sound reasons for ending one's life probably included unbearable physical pain or intolerable injustice. What an unsound reason might have been is unclear. Part of the embalming and burial rituals included the asking of 42 questions which were meant to determine the moral character of the deceased. Since the deceased could not speak for himself, his answers were always assumed to be in his favor. Although the questions ran the gamut from acts of violence and cruelty to slander and theft, it is a telling fact that there were none dealing with suicide. Condemned persons were allowed to choose the manner of their execution- either by the hand of the executioner, or by their own. This practice was later revived by the Romans and is indicative of a society which viewed suicide as morally acceptable.
Footnote: * Around 3100 BC Upper and Lower Egypt were united under King Menes. After two thousand years of alternating supremacy and subjugation, the empire finally crumbled for good around 1090 BC. Afterward Egypt was ruled by successive waves of invaders whose own attitudes toward suicide influenced those of the Egyptians. [Back]
Sources:
Budge, E.W. The Book Of The Dead. New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1960 (1898).
Evans & Farberow. The Encyclopedia Of Suicide. New York: Facts On File, 1988.
Flanders, Stephen A. Suicide. New York: Facts On File, 1991.
Hankoff & Einsidler (eds). Suicide: Theory & Clinical Aspects. Littleton, MA: PSG Publishing Co. Inc., 1979.
revised 19990426 |