This week is National Suicide Prevention Week, Sept 713

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This week is National Suicide Prevention Week,
Sept 7-13
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New Vocabulary

• from Eliade
• Cosmogony
• Immobilism
• Hieratic
• Sidereal
• Soteriology
• Soteriological

• From Egypt
• Maat
• Ka
• Ba

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The Ka and the Ba

• Egyptian religion held that what we call the
  spirit or soul consisted of three distinct parts
  the ka, the ba, and the akh. Egyptologists
  characterize the ka (represented by two upraised
  arms) as the individual's "vital force" or
  "spiritual twin." When a person was born, the god
  Khnum created his or her ka, modeling both body
  and spirit on his potter's wheel. Kings could
  have several kas mere mortals had only one.
  During life the ka remained separate from the
  body. At death a person was said to have "gone to
  his or her ka." This was the Egyptian way of
  saying that the ka had merged with the deceased's
  lifeless form.To survive, the ka needed a body
  for its eternal home. The Egyptians believed that
  the ka dwelt within either the mummy or the tomb
  statue (sometimes called the ka-statue), a spare
  body needed if the corpse should be destroyed.The
  Egyptians called the second element of the soul
  the ba (or "animation"). It was the part of the
  spirit that was free to leave the tomb and travel
  about the earth during the day. The ba was
  obliged, however, to return to the tomb during
  the perilous hours of darkness. Artisans had
  several ways of showing the ba, sometimes as a
  bird, but most often as a human-headed bird. The
  ba came into being only when the ka and the dead
  body were united without the ka and a mummy or
  ka-statue, the ba could not exist.
• From http//www.carnegiemnh.org/exhibits/egypt/spi
  rit.htm

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Forms of Death

• Death during (or soon after) birth
• Death of mother in childbirth
• Death in the womb
• Death in childhood
• Death in young adulthood
• Accidental death
• Death from violence
• Death from disasters (fires, earthquakes)
• Death in warfare
• Death by law - executions, forced suicides
• Death from disease
• Sudden death (e.g. heart attack)
• Fast-moving illness (e.g. plague)
• Slowly debilitating illness
• Death from old age

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Two Special, Related Forms of Death

• Suicide
• Martyrdom
• Both of these forms of death are given special
  attention by religious traditions. Some
  religions encourage one, or the other, because
  cosmologically they are maintaining that some
  things (beliefs, principles, spiritual rather
  than material existence) are more significant
  than life. Some religions oppose suicide, and
  even martyrdom, because they feel that death is a
  decision made by a god rather than by a mortal.
  They may also maintain that violent death is
  never preferable to peaceful preparation.

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Antigone

• Part of Greek cycle of Oedipus
• Play by Sophocles
• Deals with multiple forms of death
• Asks cosmological questions and social questions

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The Burial of the Brothers

• Antigone explains the situation
• But hasn't Kreon honored only one
• Of our two brothers with a tomb and disHonored
• the other? They say he has covered
• Eteokles with earth, as justice and law
• Require, so down below among the dead He will be
  honored. But the body of poor
• Polyneikes, who died so wretchedly?
• They say a proclamation has been cried
• To all the citizens that no one may
• Hide it inside a grave, wail over it
• Or weep for it, it must be left unmourned,
• Unburied, a sweet-tasting treasure that birds
• Will spy and feed on with their greedy joy.

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Our Debt to the Dead

• Antigone speaks
• I will bury him. For me it's noble to do
• This thing, then die. With loving ties to him,
• I'll lie with him who is tied by love to me,
• I will commit a holy crime, for I must please
  those down below for a longer time
• Than those up here, since there I'll lie forever.

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The Physiognomy of Death

• The physical attributes of death move the plot
  along
• The guard speaks
• We brushed
• Off all the dust that was on the corpse, we did
• A good job of uncovering the body,
• Which was slimy and then upwind, on top
• Of a hill, we sat, to keep ourselves away
• From the stink, so that it wouldn't hit us. Each
  man
• Helped by keeping another awake and warning
• Him loudly if he seemed to shirk the task.
• This lasted till the time when the blazing circle
• Of the sun had put itself at the midpoint
  Of the sky and we were melting in the heat.

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What is worth more than life?

• Antigone freely confesses to Kreon
• I knew that I will die how can I not?
• Even without your proclamation. But if
• I die before my time, I count that as
• My profit. For does not someone who, like me,
  Lives on among so many evils, profit
• By dying? So for me to happen on
• This fate is in no way painful. But if
• I let the son of my own mother lie
• Dead and unburied, that would give me pain.

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Kreon and Antigone

• KREON Why do you grace with irreverent honor that
  other
• one?
• ANTIGONE Eteokles' dead body won't testify to
  that.
• KREON It will, if you honor him the same as the
  irreverent
• one.
• ANTIGONE It was no slaveit was my brother who
  died!
• KREON Attacking this land! the other stood
  against him, in
• defense.
• ANTIGONE And yet it's Hades who desires these
  laws.
• KREON But the good should not get equal honor
  with the
• evil.
• ANTIGONE Who knows if down there that is not
  considered holy?
• KREON An enemy, even when he's dead, is not a
  friend.
• ANTIGONE My nature's not to join in hate but to
  join in love.
• KREON Then go down there and love those friends,
  if you
• must love them!

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Tieresias and Kreon

• There are religious ramifications in Kreons
  decision not to bury Polynikes
• Stubbornness will earn
• The charge of botching things! Give way to the
  dead.
• Don't keep stabbing at him who is destroyed.
• What prowess can there be in killing the dead
• Yet again?

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Burying and Being Buried

• Kreons words when he carries his sons body back
  into the city
• The burden of being mortal
• The sad, exhausting burden!

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Euridikes Suicide

• The pain of loss leading to despair
• At the altar, with a sharp-edged, pointed blade
• She stabbed herself with sudden force and allowed
• Her eyes to close on darkness after she wailed
• For the empty bed of dead Megareus And for this
  son, too and last, she chanted hymns
• Of evil curses on you, killer of sons.
• Megareus was a second son of Kreon and Euridike,
  who was sacrificed earlier in the war