65 doi: 10.19090/i.2020.31.65-77 UDC: 179.7:821.14'02-21.09 ISTRAŽIVANJA ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC PAPER JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL RESEARCHES Received: 17 April 2019 31 (2020) Accepted: 17 October 2019 GORDAN MARIČIĆ University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy gmaricic@f.bg.ac.rs ŽELJKA ŠAJIN University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Philosophy zeljka.sajin@ff.unibl.org ANCIENT GREEKS AND SUICIDE IN THE TRAGEDIES: SOPHOCLES᾿ AJAX 1 AND EURIPIDES᾿ HERACLES 2 Abstract: This paper analyzes attitudes towards suicide in ancient Greece as presented in Greek tragedies. Although suicide as a social phenomenon was a common motif in various ancient plays, the focus here will be on two tragedies, Sophocles᾿ Ajax and Euripides᾿ Heracles, in which suicidal tendencies motivated by a loss of honor are most clearly depicted. In these plays, the two heroes are faced with a dilemma: choosing between an honorable death or a life spent in shame. In accordance with the ideals of his creator and the strict heroic code, Sophocles’ Ajax decides to commit suicide. Euripides’ Heracles, however, broken and devastated, chooses life by relying only on himself and his friendship with Theseus. Keywords: suicide, Ajax, Heracles, Sophocles, Euripides, solitude, the Peloponnesian War, self- reliance, friendship, Theseus. 1. Introduction ncient literary, historical, and philosophical sources show that, despite of being full of vigor, cheerful, and devoted to life, the Greeks never denied a man his right to choose to live or to die of his own free will. 3 Although suicide was an act directed against the gods, in Greek society of the fifth century B.C.E., and even earlier, it was a 1 The beginnings of this research can be found in Maričić 2009: 15−22. 2 The passages from Sophocles᾿ Ajax and Euripides᾿ Heracles quoted in the present paper are from Sophocles, Electra and Other Plays, Ajax, Electra, Women of Trachis, Philoctetes, translated by E. F. Watling, Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondswoerh-Middlesex, 1973, and Euripides, Medea and Other Plays, Medea, Hecabe, Electra, Heracles, Translated with an Introduction by Philip Vellacot, Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondswoerh-Middlesex, 1971. 3 For a complete account of all instances of suicide in ancient literary and historical sources, see: Hirzel 1908: 75ff, 243ff, 417ff. A